Advanced Race Guide Preview: Letting the Cat out of the Bag

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Actually, we are letting the cat out of the book. Last week, after previewing the tengu section of the Advanced Race Guide, we asked you what you wanted to see next. We received many good suggestions, but it seems that many of you wanted to see the catfolk.

These lithe and agile creatures make excellent monks, rangers, and especially rogues, but they also have a mysterious side, as they are sometimes able to control luck and can draw on supernatural powers and spells that are very catlike in nature. This week’s preview examines just some examples of these themes in the catfolk section.

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Catfolk Rogue Talents

The following rogue talents can only be taken by catfolk.

Deadly Scratch (Ex): A catfolk rogue with this talent can apply poison to her claws without accidentally poisoning herself. A catfolk rogue must have the cat’s claws racial trait and the poison use class feature before taking this talent.

Disarming Luck (Ex): Once per day, when a catfolk rogue attempts to disable a device and fails by 5 or more, she can reroll the check as a free action. She must take the result of the reroll, even if it’s worse than the original roll.

Graceful Faller (Ex): A catfolk rogue with this talent lands on her feet even when she takes lethal damage from a fall. If the catfolk rogue also has the nimble faller racial trait, she takes damage from any fall as if it were 20 feet shorter than it actually is.

Nimble Climber (Ex): A catfolk rogue with this talent gains a +4 bonus on Climb checks. If she has the climber racial trait, she can take 10 on her Climb checks even when in immediate danger or distracted.

Single-Minded Appraiser (Ex): A catfolk rogue with this talent is skilled at determining the value of sparkly things. She can always take 10 when appraising gems and jewelry.

Vicious Claws (Ex): A catfolk with this talent uses d8s to roll sneak attack damage instead of d6s, but only when she uses her claws to make the sneak attack. A catfolk rogue must have the cat’s claws racial trait before taking this talent.

Catfolk Feats

Catfolk have access to the following feats.

Black Cat
Bad luck befalls those who dare to cross you.
Prerequisite: Catfolk.
Benefit: Once per day as an immediate action, when you are hit by a melee attack, you can force the opponent who made the attack to reroll it with a –4 penalty. The opponent must take the result of the second attack roll. This is a supernatural ability.
Special: If you take this feat and don’t already have all black fur, your fur turns completely black when you take this feat.

Catfolk Magic Items

The following magic items are often created and used by catfolk.

Daredevil Softpaws
Aura faint enchantment; CL 3rd
Slot feet; Price 1,400 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Description

This pair of magical softpaw boots (see above) allows the catfolk wearing them to gain extra maneuverability while moving through hazardous areas. As a free action, the wearer can click her heels together to grant herself a +5 competence bonus on Acrobatics checks made to move through threatened squares or to move through an enemy’s space without provoking attacks of opportunity for up to 10 rounds per day. The rounds need not be consecutive. Furthermore, anytime the wearer of the boots successfully moves though the space of an enemy without provoking an attack of opportunity, she gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls against that enemy until the end of her turn.

Construction

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, cat’s grace; Cost 700 gp

Catfolk Spells

Catfolk have access to the following spells.

Steal breath
School transmutation [air]; Level bard 2, druid 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, witch 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one living creature
Duration 1 round (see text)
Saving Throw Fortitude negates; see text; Spell Resistance yes
You pull the breath from a creature’s lungs, dealing damage and leaving it unable to speak, use breath weapons, or cast spells with verbal components. If the target fails its saving throw, it takes 2d6 points of damage, and it cannot speak, use breath weapons, or do anything else requiring breathing, and a visible line of swirling air leaves the target’s mouth and enters your mouth.
If, during the duration, the target moves out of range or line of effect to you, the spell immediately ends. This spell has no effect on creatures that do not need to breathe air.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

Introducing the Year of the Risen Rune

Monday, April 30, 2012

I took a break from the Gen Con push today to write this blog post, and my mind started to wander. I thought a bit about days gone by and how last year at this time we were under just as much pressure trying to get Ultimate Combat off to the presses in time. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyway, I also thought to myself, "Self, what sort of blog were you writing this time last year?"

"Aha!" myself answered. "I can do a search and find out!"

Now, those of you who've been following our Monday Pathfinder Society blog posts for a while likely remember this time in spring 2011, when we had a very lengthy series of posts covering "The Future of Pathfinder Society Organized Play." In fact, that series was when we started doing weekly posts and claimed Monday as our own special day of the week. So I checked back to Part VII of that series from May 2. And lo and behold, that was when we announced the title of the current season, the Year of the Ruby Phoenix.

"Self, you should do the same thing for Season 4 in your blog post for Monday," I said. And it seemed a reasonable suggestion, so I agreed.

Season 4 of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign will be entitled Year of the Risen Rune. The focus of the season is going to be the Pathfinder Society's burgeoning lodge in the Varisian city of Magnimar—the focal point of the forthcoming Shattered Star Adventure Path, which also debuts at Gen Con 2012. While that Adventure Path won't be sanctioned for Pathfinder Society credit and won't use the faction system we have in the organized play campaign, there will be a lot of overlap between the Adventure Path and the Pathfinder Society campaign. So whatever campaign you play, you'll have lots of options for exploring the untamed frontier region of Varisia and the ancient Thassilonian ruins located there.

We'll have a lot more information about both the Shattered Star Adventure Path and the Year of the Risen Rune in the coming months, but until we get closer to the launch of these exciting adventures, check out the venture-captain who Pathfinder players of all ilks are likely to get to know very well—Sheila Heidmarch—and the Pathfinder Society season's shiny new logo.

Sheila Heidmarch Illustration by Kieran Yanner

The Year of the Risen Rune and the Shattered Star Adventure Path both launch at Gen Con 2012 this August!

Mark Moreland
Developer

Ultimate Equipment: What's Missing?

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Now that we’re wrapping up the last of the Advanced Race Guide, the design team is starting to work on Ultimate Equipment. This hardcover will cover all kinds of mundane and magical items for the Pathfinder RPG. As we have a little time before the text goes over to the editors, we’d like to give you one last chance to provide feedback for the book. Is there a kind of magic item that you’d like to see in this book? Is there an item category that’s lacking? Is there a class or game mechanic that is underrepresented in the item lists? Leave your feedback to this blog entry and we’ll see what else we can cram into the book!

Edit: Just to clarify, this book is basically a "shopping catalogue" of items fantasy adventurers may want to own and have a reasonable chance of purchasing. It isn't introducing any new rule systems or subsystems (such as legacy weapons), rework character wealth by level or the problems with the "big six" magic items, or introduce new magic item slots, new classes or archetypes, clarifications or expansions of the crafting or magic item pricing rules, castles and furniture, shift existing items to different slots, include magical equivalents of technological items (cell phones, portable stoves), items that duplicate or invalidate class abilities or feats, or futuristic weapons. We are adding new magic items to every single magic item slot. In particular, we'd like to know if there are any mundane items, weapons, or armor that fill a niche which isn't already covered in the game.

Illustrations by Kieran Yanner
for GameMastery Item Cards: Skull & Shackles

Sean K Reynolds
Designer

Unflinching Evil

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

When brainstorming a new hardcover bestiary, we have many goals. These books give us an opportunity to support new Adventure Paths and other products. A new 300-plus-page volume of monsters gives us a chance to delve deep into the world’s mythologies and find new and interesting creatures from stories around the world. We get to express our love for classic creatures, exploring the genre’s rich history and smoothing out some of its wackiness. But it also gives us the opportunity to be evil.

And we love us some evil.

Monsters have the potential to take on a number of roles in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. They can help a GM illuminate his or her campaign world. Monsters can serve as the impetus for adventure, calling the characters to quests with both words and actions. There is little doubt, though, that the chief job of monsters is to bring the hurt. Some of the best monsters are unflinching in their evil, and that’s the way we like them. While any monster has the potential for true evil, few fill that role like undead. And Bestiary 3has a large portion of undead. From the life-draining hollow serpent, to the soul trapping demilich, to the ship-wreaking sea bonze, all of these monsters have an all-consuming hatred for living things and the living world that has forsaken them. Even on the rare occasions where diplomacy is employed and parley is engaged, all but the most hopeful or deluded adventurer knows that an encounter with undead is doomed to end in the destruction of that corrupt thing or with character death. Their foul nature leaves little room for any middle ground. Even the gun-toting pale stranger—a gunslinger risen from the grave to right some past wrong—is corrupt, evil, and must eventually be put down to make the world a better, safer place.

So if you are like me, you love your monsters purely evil, and like to unleash hordes of unredeemable and creepy undead at your party, you are going to like what you find when you crack open Bestiary 3. While Halloween is long gone, consider celebrating a nightmarish holiday season with the ghastly things you find within its pages. You can start with this one: the tzitzimitl, and creature of apocalyptic evil, which exists only to blot out the sun and end all life that dares come across its path.

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Tzitzimitl CR 19

XP 204,800
NE Gargantuan undead
Init +9; Senses arcane sight, darkvision 60 ft., true seeing; Perception +31

Defense

AC 35, touch 11, flat-footed 30 (+5 Dex, +24 natural, –4 size)
hp 319 (22d8+220); fast healing 15
Fort +17, Ref +14, Will +19
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, light to dark; DR 15/bludgeoning and good; Immune cold, electricity, undead traits; Resist fire 15; SR 30

Offense

Speed 50 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee bite +26 (2d8+14 plus 3d6 electricity and energy drain), 2 claws +27 (2d6+14/19–20 plus 3d6 electricity)
Ranged eye beam +17 touch (10d6 electricity and 10d6 force)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft.
Special Attacks eclipse, energy drain (2 levels, DC 31)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 19th; concentration +29)
  Constant—arcane sight, fly, true seeing
  At will—bestow curse (DC 24), deeper darkness
  3/day—animate dead, contagion (DC 23), greater teleport, haste
  1/day—create undead, temporal stasis (DC 28), wail of the banshee (DC 29)

Statistics

Str 39, Dex 21, Con —, Int 20, Wis 23, Cha 30
Base Atk +16; CMB +29; CMD 44
Feats Awesome Blow, Combat Reflexes, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Point-Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Fly +35, Knowledge (arcana) +28, Knowledge (nature) +27, Knowledge (planes) +25, Knowledge (religion) +30, Perception +31, Sense Motive +31, Spellcraft +23, Survival +21, Use Magic Device +30
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Common

Ecology

Environment any
Organization solitary
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Eclipse (Su) Anytime a tzitzimitl casts deeper darkness, any creatures in the area of darkness when it is created take 8d6 points of cold damage (DC 31 Fortitude for half). Any creature that takes damage from this effect becomes staggered as long as it remains in the area of darkness and for 1d4 rounds after it leaves that area. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Eye Beam (Su) As a standard action, a tzitzimitl can fire a glowing beam of force from its eyes at a range of 100 feet as a ranged touch attack dealing 10d6 points of force damage and 10d6 points of electricity damage.
Light to Dark (Su) As an immediate action up to three times per day, a tzitzimitl can convert a positive energy effect that affects it into negative energy. Doing so transforms the entire effect, such that it affects other creatures as well. A tzitzimitl can transform channeled positive energy in this way even if the positive energy would not otherwise harm it.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

Illustration by Kieran Yanner. Widescreen version here.

Planets in Peril!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

The latest release from Planet Stories, Robert Silverberg's The Planet Killer's: Three Novels of the Spaceways, is now blasting off from the Paizo warehouse. Kieran Yanner, who has illustrated all three of our Silverberg omnibuses with an eye-catching, nostalgic look, is in top retro-SF form once again in this new Planet Stories wallpaper!

Christopher Carey
Editor

Golarion Day: Psychopomps

Thursday, April 21, 2011

In Bestiary 2 we introduced a new race of neutral outsiders, the aeons. But we weren't satisfied with only one race of neutral outsiders—especially since aeons don't fit perfectly into the Boneyard, Golarion's true neutral Outer Plane. With the article on Pharasma in the second volume of Carrion Crown, we revealed a second race of neutral outsiders—ones that specifically serve Pharasma and dwell in the Boneyard itself. The psychopomps.

In Pathfinder Adventure Path #47, we'll present full stat blocks for two psychopomps—both of which are illustrated here in this blog post: the fearsome skeletal vanth and the cute little four-winged nosoi. We'll be presenting more of these creatures in the future, but I'm already quite pleased with how they're turning out. To the extent that I wouldn't mind having a nosoi pet. Those guys are so cute!

Illustration by Kieran Yanner	Illustration by Lake Hurwitz

Anyway, while I'm not quite ready to reveal any full stat blocks yet for psychopomps, I can do the next best thing—here are the rules for psychopomp traits!

Psychopomp Traits

The gears of the multiverse turn through the constant motion of mortal souls. Although Pharasma is the ultimate judge over the dead, a grand bureaucracy serves her and overflows with able record-keepers, prosecutors, investigators, and guardians. They are psychopomps, the right hand of death. Psychopomps, also known as reapers in some circles, are neutral outsiders who serve death and ensure the steady flow of souls into the cosmic cycle. Few care for the concept of balance so much as for duty and the rightful progression of life to death and beyond by any and all means necessary. As enforcers of mortality and the cosmic cycle, psychopomps universally loathe undead. Although they vary widely in appearance, all psychopomps bear an elaborate funerary mask as a mark of their place in the cycle of life and death.

Psychopomp Traits: A psychopomp possesses the following traits.

Darkvision 60 feet and low-light vision.

Immunity to death effects, disease, and poison.

Resistance to cold 10 and electricity 10

Except where otherwise noted, psychopomps speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Infernal.

A psychopomp's natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, are treated as though they had the ghost touch weapon special ability.

Spiritsense (Su) A psychopomp notices, locates, and can distinguish between living and undead creatures within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability.

James Jacobs
Creative Director

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Ultimate Magic: Witches and Wizards

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

This week's theme is witches and wizards: two new familiars, two new patron themes, and two arcane discoveries.

New Familiars

The following are two of the many new familiars presented in Ultimate Magic.

Fox    CR 1/4
XP 100
N Tiny animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
Defense
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 size)
hp 5 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +1
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee bite +1 (1d3-1)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Statistics
Str 9, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 9 (13 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Acrobatics +2 (+10 jumping), Perception +8, Stealth +10, Survival +1 (+5 scent tracking); Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics when jumping, +4 Survival when tracking by scent
Ecology
Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, or skulk (3–12)
Treasure none
Foxes are small, doglike carnivores with narrow snouts and bushy tails. A fox's master gains a +2 bonus on Reflex saves.

Hedgehog    CR 1/8
XP 50
N Diminutive animal
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1
Defense
AC 18, touch 17, flat-footed 15 (+3 Dex, +1 natural, +4 size)
hp 2 (1d8–2)
Fort +0, Ref +5, Will +1
Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Space 1 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Statistics
Str 1, Dex 16, Con 6, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 7
Base Atk +0; CMB –1; CMD 4 (8 vs. trip)
Feats Athletic
Skills Climb +5, Stealth +19, Swim +5
Ecology
Environment tropical or temperate forests
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure none
Special Abilities
Spiny Defense (Ex) As a move action, a hedgehog can roll itself up into a spiny ball. While rolled up, it gains a +1 enhancement bonus to its existing natural armor, and any creature attempting to grapple the hedgehog takes 1d3 damage on making a grapple check. While rolled up, a hedgehog cannot take any action other than leaving this state. The hedgehog can leave this state as a move action.

Hedgehogs are spiny, insectivorous mammals. When threatened, a hedgehog rolls up into a spiny ball as a defense mechanism. A hedgehog's master gains a +2 bonus on Will saves

Witch Patron Themes

The following are some of the alternative witch patron themes presented in Ultimate Magic.

Healing: 2nd—remove fear, 4th—lesser restoration, 6th—remove disease, 8th—restoration, 10th—cleanse**, 12th—pillar of life**, 14th—greater restoration, 16th—mass cure critical wounds, 18th—true resurrection.
Winter: 2nd—unshakable chill*, 4th—resist energy (cold only), 6th—ice storm, 8th—wall of ice, 10th—cone of cold, 12th—freezing sphere, 14th—control weather, 16th—polar ray, 18th—polar midnight*.

Arcane Discoveries

Arcane discoveries are a new option presented in Ultimate Magic. A wizard can learn an arcane discovery in place of a regular feat or wizard bonus feat.

Fast Study: Normally, a wizard spends 1 hour preparing all of his spells for the day, or proportionately less if he only prepares some spells, with a minimum of 15 minutes of preparation. Thanks to mental discipline and clever mnemonics, you can prepare all of your spells in only 15 minutes, and your minimum preparation time is only 1 minute. You must be at least a 5th-level wizard to select this discovery.
Multimorph (Su): Your studies in transmogrification have increased your control over shapechanging spells. When you cast a spell of the polymorph subschool on yourself, you may expend 1 minute of the spell's duration as a standard action to assume another form allowed by the spell. You can do this as often as you like, subject to the duration of the spell. You must be at least a 5th-level wizard to select this discovery.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer

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.

Hyrum Savage
Marketing and Organized Play Manager

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Hunt the Space-Witch!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

With Manly Wade Wellman's Battle in the Dawn: The Complete Hok the Mighty now shipping from the Paizo warehouse, I'm happy to announce we've just wrapped up production on our next volume in the Planet Stories library, Robert Silverberg's Hunt the Space-Witch! Seven Adventures in Time and Space. A collection of Silverberg's early science fiction, Hunt the Space-Witch! features seven novellas by one of the genres most important voices, all written in the adventurous style of the original Planet Stories pulp magazine.

We have some other exciting Silverberg projects lined up in the future—including a just-announced omnibus collection titled The Planet Killers—so when we went looking for a cover, we decided we wanted to give a similar stylistic look to the books, one that conveyed the sort of retro-future of Silverberg's wonder-filled, pulp-era-inspired stories. So behold, Kieran Yanner's striking cover illustration for the first volume!

Robert Silverberg's Hunt the Space-Witch! ships in June.

Christopher Paul Carey
Editor

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Hazardous Terrain

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

In last week's Design Tuesday blog, I delved into the importance of terrain to push your encounter design to the next level, and provided you with some design philosophy to ponder when designing your own terrain. This week, I'm back with some concrete examples.

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game assumes combatants are able to use their movement abilities with little or no hindrance. Sure, there are walls, doors, and difficult terrain to navigate, or maybe some obscuring effects to grant a little concealment, but for the most part PCs and monsters have free reign to move about the rooms and corridors of the dungeon as they wish. The following types of terrain are all exceptions to this norm. While some act as difficult terrain, they present further hazards while navigating the battlefield.

One thing to keep in mind about all of these new terrain types is that they typically work best as smaller, tactically placed patches. You may be tempted to fill an entire battlefield with one of these new terrains, but doing this should be the exception rather than the rule. They all work best when they give characters a choice between freedom and danger. When properly placed, they can reward the use of combat maneuvers and spells that grant increased mobility to allies or restrict or force the movement of enemies, and may limit the opportunities to make charge attacks without stymieing that tactic outright.

You may notice that these new terrain types are very similar to the hazards presented on pages 244–245 of the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide. So what is the difference between these terrains and hazards? These hazardous terrains involve slightly more choice on the part of combatant than hazards do. Most, if not all, have effects when a character chooses to move into or is forced into them, and those effects should be relatively easy to determine before the combatant enters them, either by way of their physical characteristic or an easy Knowledge check (DC 10) of the appropriate type.

Anchor Stone: This strange stone has a debilitating gravitational effect on those who do not traverse over it quickly. Each time a creature starts its turn on an area of anchor stone, it must succeed at a DC 12 Fortitude saving throw. Any creature that fails can only take a 5-foot step on its turn. Any creature that succeeds at the saving throw must move at half speed on its turn.

To take the effects of anchor stone, a creature must be standing on or touching the stone. Anchor stone has no effect on those who fly over it or otherwise do not have physical contact with the stone.

Some areas of anchor stone are more powerful than others, having a DC of 15, 20, or even higher.

Choke Spores: This type of fungus thrives in subterranean caves and other damp and lightless areas. The first time a creature starts its turn within an area containing choke spores, the poison of the fungus is released, inflicting those within that space with the following poison.

Choke Spore Poison

Type poison, inhaled; Save Fortitude DC 14

Frequency 1/round for 1d4 rounds

Effect 1 Dex and 1 Wis damage; Cure 1 save

Once an area of choke spores releases its poison, that area becomes dormant for 1 day. With a single standard action, a creature can use fire (from a torch, a flaming magical weapon, or a similar implement) to destroy all the choke spore balls within all 5-foot-squares adjacent to the creature. Acid, cold, and fire damage from area effect spells automatically destroy patches of choke spores within the spells' effect areas.

Fey Mist: This strange swirling mist of purple and green gas and motes of light dazzles those who stray within it. Fey mist provides concealment. Furthermore, a living, non-fey creature that starts its turn within the mist must make a DC 12 Will saving throw or become confused for 1 round. Those that make their saving throws are dazzled for 1 round instead. This is an enchantment effect.

Some areas of fey mist are more powerful than others, and have and require a DC 15, DC 20, or even DC 25 Will saving throw to avoid its confusion.

Flame: A house is on fire and that flame rages in large areas, a hellish landscape burns around you, or a large bonfire rages in a clearing where a coven of witches chant evil incantations. While the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook has rules for forest fires, sometimes you may want to have a section of an encounter area that just burns.

When a creature starts its turn with its space fully within an area of flame, it takes 1d6 points of fire damage, and if the creature is wearing metal armor, it is affected as if by a heat metal spell. A creature that starts its turn with its space only partially within an area of flame must succeed at a DC 12 Reflex saving throw or take the damage and the heat metal effect if it is wearing metal armor. A creature that moves through areas of flame must make a DC 12 Reflex saving throw or take 1d6 points of fire damage, but avoids the heat metal effect. This save is made the first time a creature moves into flame with a move action or when it is affected by something that pushes or otherwise forces the creature into an area of flame.

Supernatural or powerful flames can have higher DCs. A raging fire can have a DC of 15 or the fires of Hell can have a DC of 20, 25, or 30 depending on the power of the flames.

Areas of flame often create smoke, the effects of which can be found on page 444 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook.

Haunted Ground: These areas of accursed ground are often the sites of horrid crimes or intense and bloody battles. The intense fear of those who lost their lives lingers and saturates the area. This fear affects living creatures that stray within these areas. A living creature that starts its turn in an area of haunted ground must succeed at a DC 15 Will saving throw or become shaken for 1d4 rounds. If the creature is already shaken, it becomes frightened for the same duration instead. Frightened creatures become panicked for the same duration instead. Creatures that are immune to fear effects are immune to haunted ground.

Razor Rubble: Either rubble made of sharp stone, or laced with small sharp blades, this terrain functions like difficult terrain (see Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook193), but each square a creature enters deals 1 point of damage to that creature. A creature moving at half speed, or that succeeds at a DC 15 Acrobatics check as a free action when first moving into an area of razor rubble can avoid the damaging affects for the round but not the difficult terrain effect.

Slick Ice: A frozen lake, a sheen of thick ice on a dungeon or cavern floor, or some other cold and slick surface, slick ice can be hard to traverse, but can also increase the speed of creatures that are agile or foolhardy enough to utilize its surface's lack of friction.

A creature traversing slick ice at more than half speed is required to make a DC 15 Acrobatic check at the start of the movement. Failure causes the creature to fall prone at the start of the movement. Running or charging on slick ice increases the DC by 5, with the same effect on a failed skill check. A creature that succeeds at this check by 5 or more can increase its move across the ice by 10 feet, but is considered flat-footed until the start of its next turn. Creatures (like those with enough levels of barbarian or rogue) that can't be caught flat-footed at the start of combat are immune to this flat-footed effect as well.

Tentacle Mold: This strange vermillion fungus clings to the moist walls, floors, and even ceilings of dungeons and caverns. When a living creature is in or near a patch of this fungus, acidic pseudopods lash out, with sickening effect.

When a living creature starts it turn in an area of or in a square next to (if it clings to the walls or the ceiling) of tentacle mold, it must make a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw; on a failed saving throw the creature takes 1 acid damage and is sickened for 1 round. Though the effect is like a poison, this is not actually a poison effect; the strange chemistry of this kind of mold makes it more alchemical in nature.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Pathfinder RPG Designer

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.

Hyrum
Marketing and Organized Play Manager

Introducing Paizo's Newest Monsters

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Last week we showed you a few pictures of the first few copies of Bestiary 2 to straggle into the office. But we've been remiss in introducing the Pathfinder community at large to the two newest monsters to grace Paizo HQ with their presence. They showed up here around the same time I started at the company, so it's easy to see why their arrival slipped under the radar. They serve as the official golem watch-monsters, guarding our most prized possessions. Here they are, for example, stealthily lurking at the top of the stairs outside Lisa's office.

Sulley (left) is a Gemini and enjoys long walks on the beach, games of Candyland, and Gary Busey movies. Mike (right) is a perfect match for anyone smitten by a "bad boy" type and dreams of one day having a gaze attack and growing more eyestalks. And for those of you who were expecting new monster art, well, who am I to disappoint?

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Mark Moreland
Developer

Oh Look, More Venture-Captains!

October 27, 2010

A few weeks ago we announced 13 Regional Coordinators that we're calling Venture-Captains. Since then, Mark and I have been going through the entire Pathfinder Society program and starting the process of making sure Season 2 ends with a bang you'll all remember, making plans for Season 3 (which will be awesome, trust me), and going through all of the rules for the Society program itself. In between all of that, I've reviewed a number of Venture-Captain applications and chosen a few new Coordinators. We're still not finished naming new Venture-Captains, but rather than sit on these names I thought it was more important to get them announced and out there building the Society in their area. And so, without further ado, here are your new Venture-Captains!

Arizona (Phoenix)
Rene Ayala
pfscoordinatorphx@gmail.com

California (San Francisco)
Michael Azzolino
pathfinder@justiceradio.net

Colorado (Denver)
JP Chapleau
jp@chapleau.us

Nevada (Las Vegas)
Issak Haywood
PFSTheocrat@gmail.com

Canada – Ontario (Toronto)
Neil Shackleton
VCNeilOnt@gmail.com

Oh, before you head over to the messageboards, you should scroll down a little to check out what my new desktop image is. Isn't it amazing? It's the cover to Matt Goodall's RPG Superstar adventure Cult of the Ebon Destroyers done by a good friend of mine, Kieran Yanner. And speaking of RPG Superstar, we're hard at work preparing for the 2011 round, so start getting ready for it. Who knows, this time next year I could be putting the cover to your adventure on my desktop.

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Hyrum Savage
Marketing and Organized Play Manager

Behold the Double Feature!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Though we've put out a lot of awesome titles in the Planet Stories line in the past few years—not a few of them stellar classics in the genre—the debut of the first-ever Planet Stories Double Feature in a couple months has really got the editorial team here stoked. And for good reason—the book features two exciting sword and planet novellas by literary grand masters Michael Moorcock and Joe R. Lansdale!

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Sojan the Swordsman features the adventurous tales of Michael Moorcock's first published character, which originally saw print in serial form in an impossible-to-find fanzine in the 1950s. Mike has revised Sojan especially for the Double Feature, so if you're looking for the definitive edition of the work, this is it. Mind you, Sojan Shieldbearer is an incarnation of Mike's recurring Eternal Champion, of whom Elric of Meniboné is another personification. Plus, Sojan carries a mean retro-futuristic steampunk air-gun—how can you beat that?

Joe Lansdale's novella Under the Warrior Star is not only an astoundingly well-executed homage to the rollicking pulp adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Otis Adelbert Kline, it's also the first original fiction published by our Planet Stories book line. Whether it's battling giant spiders in the miles-high trees of the forest world of Juna or taking on that planet's Cthulhu-like overlord with but a sword in hand, Joe's hero Braxton Booker, a former Olympic fencing champion with a shady past, makes the perfect counterpart for Moorcock's sword-wielding Sojan.

Now that you know a little bit about the Double Feature, check out the pulp hero goodness of Kieran Yanner's cover art for the book. Get your swords sharpened and your air-guns primed—the Double Feature releases this fall!

Christopher Paul Carey
Editor

Matthew Hughes's Template: A Novel of the Archonate

Monday, July 19, 2010

I'm happy to announce that Planet Stories' latest release, Template: A Novel of the Archonate by Matthew Hughes, has hit the Paizo warehouse and is now shipping to subscribers. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Template is the most recently written novel that Planet Stories has published, and we're extremely proud to be offering it to readers in the States for the first time. It takes the best of that sense of wonder and adventure that we look for in all the fiction we publish and combines it with the crisp prose of a modern master of the genre. And it's a novel that I think both gamers and general SF readers can sink their teeth into with great enjoyment—the book's hero is, after all, a professional duelist on the gaming world of Thrais. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Matthew Hughes's work has been compared favorably with that of living SF legend Jack Vance, author of The Dying Earth series, which inspired the magic systems for the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying games.

Now, for some instant gratification, here's an excerpt from the novel's exciting opening.

En garde!

Christopher Paul Carey
Editor

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Chapter 1

The tall skinny one and the one with the shaved head kept circling to Conn Labro's right. When they came at him their attack was well coordinated, the points of their epiniards darting in at different angles, aimed at different parts of his body. Now they came again and Conn timed the double parry exactly, riposted against the skinny one so that he had to block the thrust in a way that hindered his partner's recovery.

But it was the third opponent who bothered him. The fat one kept circling widdershins to the others only to leap into the fight seemingly at random, not thrusting but flailing with the long thin epiniard while shouting what sounded like nonsense syllables. Conn would have to duck or leap back in an ungainly manner. Then the other two would come smoothly in and he would have to flick and click, parry and thrust again, trying to find their rhythm then turn it against them.

He soon realized that there was no rhythm to be found. The fat one was actually very good. He was capable, as very few are, of a truly asymmetrical attack, able to resist the unconscious urge to find a rhythm with his partners.

It was turning out to be an interesting contest. Conn surmised that the three must have practiced against a simulation based on some of his past fights. He knew that his employer, the impresario Ovam Horder, sold such artificial experiences to those who could never afford the fee required to meet Conn in the flesh or by remote connection. The trio must have augmented the simulation by factoring in other matches recorded from public performances, then using sophisticated means to meld all into one.

Now here came the two coordinated attackers once more, but this time there was a tiny disharmony to their movements. The skinny one was a quarter-beat behind his partner, meaning Conn must extend his parry an equally small interval of time past perfection before binding the skinny one's blade and sliding the point of Conn's epiniard over the wrist guard.

As he executed the move, he expected the fat one to come in swinging and burbling from his blind side. Instead, as Conn turned his head enough to bring the third man into his peripheral vision, he found the rotund attacker silently sliding toward him, crossing the smooth floor on his plump belly, the point of his weapon aimed at Conn's ankle.

Again, Conn had to make a less than graceful escape, leaping clear over the supine swordster, only to find the other two rushing at him once more. But they came on two different tangents this time, their flexible blades whipping and thrusting from all angles, so that Conn must exert near maximum speed to beat off the attack. And meanwhile, the fat one was coming in between the others, but this time he was actually on his knees, again aiming for Conn's ankles.

Conn felt a flash of irritation and automatically summoned the mental exercise that dissipated the feeling. He heard Hallis Tharp's voice speaking from his memory: He who loses his temper loses all, and again he spoke within his mind the syllables of the Lho-tso mantra that restored calm. He flicked his point at the fat one's eyes, knocked away the bald man's thrust and sidestepped a slash from the thin one. He had to give the three of them credit for a novel strategy: they had known they could not win on skills—they were adequate swordsters, but even three of them were no match for one of Bay City's premier house players—so they had instead closely analyzed Conn's temperament. They must have thought that if they could annoy him enough, if they could bring him to anger....

The three were preparing for another attempt. He saw their eyes signal to each other as they readied themselves, and he looked closely at the fat one. And there it was, plain to be seen: the calculation behind the seeming randomness, and the way the man looked at Conn from the corner of his eye, weighing up the results so far.

Conn realized how the bets must be laid. That was why their attacks lacked true brio and why the fat one behaved like a clown. They were not out to win, nor even to draw, which would have been the best they might expect. Instead, they were intent on annoying and frustrating him to the point where he departed from his legendary equanimity. He smiled. The moment his lips showed his amusement he read the signs in the others' faces and knew he had won. They stepped back and lowered their epiniards. " Will you continue?" Conn asked.

Excerpt from Template: A Novel of the Archonate Copyright © 2008 by Matthew Hughes

China Miéville on The Walrus & the Warwolf!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Many of you already hip to the Planet Stories line likely already know about China Miéville's enthusiasm for Hugh Cook, the recently deceased New Zealand author whose capacity for bizarre and captivating fantasy worlds which staunchly refused to leave out any SF element (from magic to tech, dragons to pirates) was matched only by his ambition as an author (in which many thousands of published pages were considered just the tip of the iceberg). And China's not alone—Paizo publisher Erik Mona has spoken long and eloquently on this site before about how much he loved Cook's writing, and how republishing The Walrus & the Warwolf is a lifelong goal of his.

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

As such, in honor of the impact Cook has made on countless fans and authors—and on the world of Golarion itself—Planet Stories and China Miéville have teamed up to offer China's entire introduction to the book here on this blog, for free. It's our sincere hope that, after reading it, you'll understand why we thought this guy deserved to stand alongside better-known authors like Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock in the Planet Stories line. (And as far as we're concerned, if China can't convince you Hugh Cook is worth reading, no one can.)

Warning: Strong language below! But then, what do you expect from pirates?

In Praise of Stupid Boys

by China Miéville

Of Hugh Cook's extraordinary, underrated, bizarre and hysterical decology, Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, The Walrus & the Warwolf has long been a, if not the, reader favourite. Let's be clear: the whole series urgently needs rediscovery—each book (all standalone) for its own specifics, as well as for the astonishing audacity with which Cook tangles them. Not only do they cross over and back and through each other book to book, but like a kind of pulp Rashomon-monger, he might repeat the exact same scene several books apart, described from two contradictory points of view, so only the most faithful readers will get the joke. The hope is that having been hooked by the following story of Drake Douay, readers will go on to The Wizards & the Warriors, The Women & the Warlords, and the later, more arcanely double-W-ing titles (from which paradigm Cook, with the torturous rigour of any Oulipian prankster—like Georges Perec, who wrote an entire novel without the letter "e"—admirably refused to budge. The Werewolf & the Wormlord? Really?).

But while every one is a must-read, it's easy to see why The Walrus & the Warwolf is perhaps the favourite. This epic picaresque of Drake's adventures is astoundingly full of stuff, precisely the stuff that gets our sweet spots. Pirates! Monsters! Wizards! Battles! Pirates! Sex! Pirates! Misunderstood robots from an ancient high-tech past! Really excellent monsters! Etc! Also pirates!

Each of those elements and others deserves an introduction of its own. What follows are a few thoughts only.

On the question of monsters, Cook brilliantly has it both ways. On the one hand, what we want from our fantasy beasts is familiarity. We want to see what an author can do with the traditional figures we know well—the gryphons, the unicorns, the... alright, let's use the D-word... the dragons. On the other hand, especially in these post-Lovecraft days, we want monsters that are completely new, totally alien, without any remembered fabular cognates. These are quite contradictory ways of relating to fantastic bodies, and authors generally simply have to choose one or the other to indulge. Cook, however, refuses to. Instead, he draws a border—a physical border, at the bottom of his map. To the north of it live dragons and their familiar folkloroid compadres; to the south, the Swarm, incomprehensible insecto-alien monstrosities, like the Neversh, of terrifying, carefully described but almost impossible to visualise alien forms. So by a kind of Promethean arithmetic, Cook just adds the new-monstrous to the old.

Sex: this book is filthy. What it is not is graphic: there's very little by way of descriptions of plunging manhoods, secret intimate spots, throbbing members or rosebuds, nor those bits and pieces by any of their more R-rated names. This is not a book designed to get you hot. What there is, though, is much braver: a cheerfully unflustered and en-passant depiction of sexual mores that are very not our own. That does not mean what one might call the "Gor option"—a titillating sprinkle of some sexist middlebrow wank-fodder that a few authors might think would spark up a secondary world. No, Cook considers it much less likely that his locals will dress in fetching BDSM straps than that they will, say, not share our most fundamental taboos. Such as, to mention a memorable scene from early on in the book, the one about incest.

Not that this particular intimate chat between Drake and his sister is pruriently indulged: it is played for laughs. It takes a very unusual kind of narrative confidence to make that joke, and make it work.

It's a similar technique of light-hearted seriousness that gets Cook past a usual dashing-rogue/merciless-baddy dyad with regard to pirates. Running away to sea with a group of swashbucklers is an old fantasy, of course, and its enthusiastic indulgence is part of what makes The Walrus & the Warwolf unputdownable. But this isn't Johnny Depp we're talking about, let alone Orlando Bloom. Piracy means ruthlessness. So when faced with attacking sea serpents, Drake's sincerely admired captain doesn't hesitate, in a scene neither indulged for mawkish horror nor giggled at in sadistic glee but merely mentioned, to throw the ship's women overboard, to drown or be eaten alive. The captain is Jon Arabin, the Warwolf of the title, and he is, in terms of the narrative, not at all a villain. Nor an "anti-hero." What he is is a pirate.

There are countless more elements and complicated sequences of events that go to make up Drake's story. What makes Cook's achievement so extraordinary, throughout the course of this discombobulated epic soup, is the relationship of his protagonist to time, adulthood, and change.

One of the many wonderful things about humans is that, and how much, we learn. Not just in classrooms and libraries, but everybloodywhere, simply as a byproduct of living in time. We change, and that—not counting the physical process, which pretty much just sucks—is wholeheartedly exciting. Writers have long known that, which is why as well as the whizz-bang events of any book, as well as all the helicopter chases, giant-monkey hunts and sexual shenanigans, part of what makes us love a story is watching the characters develop. They aren't static. Character plus time equals narrative.

This matters. It's about more than just entertainment or spinning a decent yarn (with neither of which, of course, is there anything wrong). It's about respect for one's characters, and is a corollary of great emancipatory shifts in human consciousness. There's nothing a powerful status quo likes more than, well, a status quo—the sense that everything will and must stay as it is. Foregrounding a character's change, by contrast, is a threat to tedious homilies of stasis, and it's no coincidence that the emergence of the most highly developed and self-conscious form of this genre was part of that revolutionary ruckus in reason, politics, aesthetics and everything else that we call the Enlightenment. In the second half of the 18th Century, Germany, that indefatigable compound neologiser, gave a name to the radical "novel of development," and it is as the Bildungsroman that we still know it.

This isn't just history, either. Anyone who reads the tale of a boy-wizard to see how he turns out, why, and what happens to him on the way, or who recalls how a callow Tattooine moisture-farmer ends up, several adventures later, a self-possessed Jedi, understands that the Bildungsroman is alive and well—and particularly healthy in its incarnation as the "epic" that SF and fantasy readers love. It's in Fantasyland that kitchen boys tend to become kings, which as well as upgrading your wardrobe has got to mess with your preconceptions. The best stories show us precisely that messy, amazing dialectic of continuity and change—let us watch, in other words, the dynamic process of being human.

Got all that? Hugh Cook does.

You can tell by the brio with which he ignores it.

Like, totally fucking ignores it.

Drake Douay learns nothing. He has no interest in learning anything. He is vehemently antipathetic to the furniture of "growing up." The Walrus & the Warwolf is a magnificent paean to adolescence, in all its sulky, petulant, self-important refusal to defer gratification, or to consider anyone else's feelings for one second.

In one of the most telling of the book's labyrinthine subplots, Drake is infected with nanobots that make him immune to poisons. His response to having become a superman? He is aghast. Because he can't get drunk. "He no longer fell about with rejoicing laughter when one man vomited over another," as Cook puts it. Any block to wilful, convivial stupidity, in other words, is to him an outrageous block on his liberty.

Drake is unerringly faithful to such attitudes. His passionate obsession with Zanya Kliedervaust is totally disaggregated from anything specific about her beyond his ongoing priapic frenzy in her presence. Not only does her profound distaste at the thought of getting involved with him and his early, thankfully cack-handed failure to trick or force her into sex not dissuade him from his efforts, but he sticks at badgering her long enough and with enough idiot rigour that he finally wins her over. This of course is totally fucking absurd. Drake, however, does not realise this, and, crucially, neither does the world he lives in.

The fact that the world is so taken in is the big surprise. The only feasible and reasonable attitude to adolescents should be kind, eye-rolling, impatient patience—we know, after all, that the universe will ultimately disabuse them of their unshakable belief that they are the most important thing in it. To indulge the cliché, even their endless arse-aching moans about how no one understands them and that authority figures are oppressive fascist bastards and that everything is so unfair are predicated on a self-important sense that the world conspires to stand in the way of their rightful greatness.

Annoying this might be, but it's also kind of winning. Hugh Cook has Drake's moans be, if not less self-indulgent, less deluded. Gouda Muck, the adult with authority over him is, in fact, unfair towards him. "Unfair," that is, in that he fixates on Drake as the harbinger of all evil, dedicates his life and resources to finding and killing Drake, propagates a religion predicated on the holy certainty that Drake is the personification of evil, and succeeds in making it the state church of Drake's hometown. There really is a conspiracy.

Of course this is terrible for Drake, and leads to some dramatic politicking and narrative intrigue. But, but, but. Such a religion is also, of course, immensely flattering to its devil-figure. Was ever there so total a vindication of teenagers' self-aggrandisement as the revelation that the world is in fact out to get them, that the guardians of power really have constructed their entire moral code purely to undermine them, that avoiding getting caught by their parental figures—joining a pirate crew and spending years exploring arcane continents here an extended remix of sneaking out of the bedroom window—really honestly totally is a matter of life and painful ritualised death? It is a brilliant rebuke to our rebuke to adolescence.

Drake Douay is an adolescent who refuses to learn the lessons of life and still gets to be the hero. Who succeeds, as he repeatedly and hilariously does, not by wisdom, experience or nuanced thinking, but by luck, doggedness and that astonishing crossbreed of idiocy and animal genius, that virtuoso dumbness, in which the teenager specialises. The sheer affection in which this book holds its heroically stubborn naughty-boy hero is terribly affecting, and terribly humane. Sure, there was a time when stressing change and development was the progressive thing for narrative to do: but lord knows that has its own moralism, too, and it's become a tedious norm. Things would never be the same after that Summer. Now, in the debris of ten thousand sub-Oz codas—what have we learnt, Dorothy?—it is impossible not to cheer at the sight of a Dorothy who learns not a damn thing, and still tries for an angle to avoid being grounded.

Hugh Cook has created the anti-Bildungsroman. The coming-of-age-refusal. The novel that celebrates, vindicates and world-creates according to the spirit of adolescence, without wagging a finger, without talking down, and in which the most wince-inducing, embarrassing, hare-brained schemes of the young somehow work.

Meet Drake Douay, as the slogan has it, and you'll never be the same again. Unlike him.

"In Praise of Stupid Boys" © 2010 by China Miéville

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Template Reviews

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

We just received the beautiful advance copies of Matthew Hughes's Template: A Novel of the Archonate here at the office today, and that reminds me we haven't really featured the book on the blog except to show of the final cover a while back.

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

At first glance, one might think the novel is a bit of a departure for the Planet Stories library—it's the most recently written book that we've published, by an author who's something of a rising star in SF. But really, it fits perfectly. Hughes's work truly marks the core of what we've been publishing since Planet Stories' inception: bold, richly exotic SF/F adventure that keeps you glued to your reading chair. But don't just listen to me. Here's what folks in the know are saying about Matthew Hughes and Template.

"If you're an admirer of the science fantasies of Jack Vance, it's hard not to feel affection for the Archonate stories of Matthew Hughes."
Locus Magazine

"Matthew Hughes's Template is many things—including a template others should follow to produce outstanding writing. Hughes has been the best-kept secret in SF for far too long: he's a towering talent, and Template is his best work to date. Bravo!"
Robert J. Sawyer, author of Hominids

"Matthew Hughes stands out as a success... if droll dialogue, curious customs, exotic scenery, clever plotting and wry cosmopolitanism are your bag, then Matthew Hughes is your man."
Paul Di Filippo for Scifi.com

"Hughes serves up equal measures of wit, intrigue, and seat-of-the-pants action and even dabbles a little in Jungian psychology..."
Booklist

"Hughes' writing style is atmospheric and witty; the story keeps moving in interesting places; surprise plot twists; it's just plain fun."
SF Signal

Christopher Paul Carey
Editor, Planet Stories

See Where It All Began!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

After almost two years of work, Before They Were Giants is finally away to the printer, and I couldn’t be more excited about it!

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

If I haven’t already filled your ear about it on the messageboards, the story behind the book is as follows. Back in the early days of Planet Stories, I came to Erik with a proposal for an anthology: What if we could get 15 of the biggest living superstars in science fiction and fantasy to give us their first published SF stories, along with interviews in which they critiqued their own stories, discussed things they know now about writing that they wish they had known then, told anecdotes surrounding the stories’ publication, and offered general advice to aspiring authors? Erik took the bait, and so began the long march toward the collection that would eventually be known as Before They Were Giants.

By far the most astonishing thing about working on this book was discovering how open, friendly, and approachable many of my favorite speculative fiction authors are. When the dust settled and I looked around, I was positively flabbergasted by the caliber of authors who were willing to sign onto the project, from Ben Bova and Cory Doctorow to China Miéville, Nicola Griffith, and William Gibson. And while I confess that the final author list directly reflects my own literary tastes, every author in the book is a master of the genre in one way or another, and reading through their interviews and advice—not to mention their maiden efforts, which run the gamut from humorous magical realist vignettes to post-apocalyptic satellite repair—is precisely the sort of thing that I always find fun, educational... and most importantly, inspiring.

As we get closer to actually shipping the book to subscribers and bookstores, I’ll probably be posting more about the project, including select excerpts from stories and author interviews. But for now, I just wanted to crow a little bit about what is, for me personally, the most exciting Planet Stories book to date. (Well, that and to show off the absolutely phenomenal cover by Kieran Yanner!)

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor

Template Cover Unveiled!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

En garde!

James L. Sutter
Editor

Also Pirates!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Given that here at Planet Stories we recently wrapped up production on Hugh Cook's Brobdingnagian-sized 464-page sci-fantasy adventure The Walrus & the Warwolf, I figured it's about time to show off the book's awesomely monstrous cover art by Keiran Yanner, and also to share with you what the book's presenter, award-winning novelist and builder of fantastic worlds China Miéville, has to say about Hugh Cook in his introduction. So without further ado, take it away, Mr. Miéville...

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Of Hugh Cook's extraordinary, underrated, bizarre and hysterical decology, Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, The Walrus and the Warwolf has long been a, if not the, reader favourite. Let's be clear: the whole series urgently needs rediscovery—each book (all standalone) for its own specifics, as well as for the astonishing audacity with which Cook tangles them. Not only do they cross over and back and through each other book to book, but like a kind of pulp Rashomon-monger, he might repeat the exact same scene several books apart, described from two contradictory points of view, so only the most faithful readers will get the joke. The hope is that having been hooked by the following story of Drake Douay, readers will go on to The Wizards & the Warriors, The Women & the Warlords, and the later, more arcanely double-W-ing titles (from which paradigm Cook, with the torturous rigour of any Oulipian prankster—like Georges Perec, who wrote an entire novel without the letter "e"—admirably refused to budge. The Werewolf & the Wormlord? Really?).

But while every one is a must-read, it's easy to see why The Walrus and the Warwolf is perhaps the favourite. This epic picaresque of Drake's adventures is astoundingly full of stuff, precisely the stuff that gets our sweet spots. Pirates! Monsters! Wizards! Battles! Pirates! Sex! Pirates! Misunderstood robots from an ancient high-tech past! Really excellent monsters! Etc! Also pirates!

...On the question of monsters, Cook brilliantly has it both ways. On the one hand, what we want from our fantasy beasts is familiarity. We want to see what an author can do with the traditional figures we know well—the gryphons, the unicorns, the... alright, let's use the D-word... the dragons. On the other hand, especially in these post-Lovecraft days, we want monsters that are completely new, totally alien, without any remembered fabular cognates. These are quite contradictory ways of relating to fantastic bodies, and authors generally simply have to choose one or the other to indulge. Cook, however, refuses to. Instead, he draws a border—a physical border, at the bottom of his map. To the north of it live dragons and their familiar folkloroid compadres; to the south, the Swarm, incomprehensible insecto-alien monstrosities, like the Neversh, of terrifying, carefully described but almost impossible to visualise alien forms. So by a kind of Promethean arithmetic, Cook just adds the new-monstrous to the old...

P.S. Yes, that is indeed Neversh on the cover!

Christopher Paul Carey
Editor, Planet Stories

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Tables; Roleplaying; Metal

Thursday, March 4, 2010

One of my first duties at Paizo was to create some random encounter tables for the GameMastery Guide. It took more than three workdays, and by the end of the process I was seeing tables in my sleep. It was a little bit like the first time you play Guitar Hero, and you look away from the screen and think the world is scrolling up for a couple seconds. Except with tables. But, I'm done with that, so that's kind of neat. Now I can dream about normal things, like giant robot rock operas and going to Chipotle with my ex-boss of three years. Rest assured, GMs, there will be no shortage of random encounter tables for when your PCs randomly wander off into the woods, or cave, or different plane of existence. I've even snuck out a piece of art from the book by artist Kieran Yanner.

On a completely different note, I GMed a Pathfinder game yesterday, and it totally rocked. I'm always the GM, so it's not like it was a new experience or anything, and I've been running Pathfinder since it came out, but I finally figured out a core component to any tabletop roleplaying game: roleplaying.

You see, for quite some time, I was having trouble encouraging my players to roleplay. I'm the type of person who writes out the five-page character background when I'm a player, and I will totally handicap myself and give myself silly stats and gear if it matches my character concept. I don't expect every player to do this, but it would be kind of cool if my group got into character every now and then. Being a fairly chill GM, I wasn't going to force them to roleplay against their will or anything, since that would kind of defeat the purpose of playing a game. No, what I wanted was for them to want to roleplay.

So, I've been thinking of ways to do this, and I stumbled upon a rather valuable, yet seemingly obvious, idea. The notion was simple, and I presented it to my group before the game. "Alright, guys, I'm thinking of trying this new thing; everything you say at the table is in-character, unless you preface with 'Out of character,' and it can only be game-related at that." They were all kind of like, "Hmm, I dunno about this, Patrick, but we'll give it a shot for an hour and see how it goes."

One hour later: awesomeness. Few distractions, if any; everybody's talking with epic accents and saying ridiculously metal (aka really, really cool) things; and we're all getting really immersed in the game. The dark and brooding wizard was dark and brooding; the charming bard was courting the maiden he had saved from a coven of hags; the druid was giving the totally rad armor of a fallen cleric to the church instead of selling it for mad gold; and the summoner was poring over books in the library and hypothesizing the origins of the mysterious crystals they had found in the abandoned temple. This group of hack-and-slashers actually began to care about the adventure and NPCs I had crafted for them. Success.

I guess my point is that even if you think you know your group (mine consists of close friends), they can still pleasantly surprise you, given the opportunity.

Patrick Renie
Editorial Intern

I ♥ Planet Stories

Monday, January 11, 2010

It takes a delicate hand to do certain things in writing, especially in the realms of science fiction and fantasy. Aside from character development, plotting, dialogue, description, pacing, and theme, science fiction and fantasy must overcome the additional hurtle which is world building. As an aspiring writer, I can tell you that world building is tough. Never mind how easy the other guys here make it look. Never mind all the wonderful freelancers we work with, or the submissions for RPG Superstar or Pathfinder Society Open Call—these people are all conspiring to get you to believe the lie that world building happens at the drop of a hat.

It just doesn't work that way.

Not to say that good world building isn't rewarding, both for the creator and the consumer. Who can say they don't enjoy a fantastical world? And yet, as difficult as it is to write good science fiction or fantasy, some authors choose to take on an additional challenge; to marry the two together in an attempt to weave a seamless narrative of swords and spaceships.

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Piers Anthony's Steppe takes on this challenge with bravado (though more sword than spaceship), using a future simulation of the past to explore both history and imagination. In his imagined year 2332, society revolves around the "Game" of history, where players have to reenact genuinely historical battles without having access to knowledge of that history. Literal twenty to thirty year chunks of time are periodically erased from the society's history in order to facilitate fair play. Enter, Alp: our Ender-Wigginesque (though created before Card was milling about) middle-aged battle-trained warrior from a 9th century mid-Asia steppe (hence, the title) with a really cool horse. How's that for hybridization?

I began reading Steppe for a few reasons (not least of all, the fact that a free copy of the book was among my compensations as an unpaid intern). Additionally, having read little other than academic theory for the past three years (graduation, you elusive tunnel light you!), I was thrilled both by the newness of this 1976 gem, and by the fact that all the research into finding the text had been done for me already; by the wonderfully conceived Planet Stories line. This is cultural archaeology at its finest, folks. It brings light to the shadowy places that academic canon does not reach into. And if nothing else, it opens us up to traditions we didn't know existed (to say nothing bad of Asimov or Clarke, it's nice to mix things up a bit).

Therefore, I can say with certainty that when my time here ends (and I stop getting free stuff), I'll be picking up a Planet Stories subscription for these exact reasons.

Matthew Lund
Editorial Intern

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Who Fears the Devil?

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

When Erik first presented me with the manuscript for Who Fears the Devil? by Manly Wade Wellman, my first thought was likely the same as yours:

Who the heck names their son "Manly"?

Yet Mr. Wellman is from a different time and a different place, and it's precisely this distance which sets him most apart. For you see, unlike many of the classic pulp stories we've published in Planet Stories, Who Fears the Devil? isn't just a fun adventure, some purely whimsical construction of an author paid to imagine things. It's a piece of Americana, a historical artifact steeped in the legends and lore of Appalachia, and its stories carry the weight of truth. This is Neil Gaiman's American Gods mashed up with Johnny Cash, and by the end you feel like you've absorbed a college class's-worth of American folklore. And where some older stories feel anachronistic today, Wellman's still has life. For even today, strange things might lurk back in the misty hills where the roads don't go, where folk live simple in sod-roofed houses, picking banjos and tilling tiny hidden valleys, praying to the good lord to protect them from witch men and the creatures scratching at their windows....

I know I've said it before (and I'll likely say it again), this is hands-down my favorite Planet Stories book. Not only is the material fascinating—an entire folkloric tradition that I've somehow remained woefully ignorant of until now—but Manly Wade Wellman is a true master of the short story. Through the no-holds-barred patois of Silver John, the two-fisted hobo saint who travels endlessly in search of rare songs and legends, we are instantly and completely plunged into another world that rings with authenticity and a strange sort of comfort, as if these were ghost stories told by a kindly grandfather. This is fantasy of a breed you've likely never seen before, and if that sounds like hyperbole, perhaps the fact that Mr. Wellman was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and famously beat out William Faulkner for the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Award (a slight for which Faulkner, one of the most important American authors of all time, reportedly never forgave him) will convince you to give him a shot.

Who Fears the Devil? has all the weirdness of an RPG sourcebook and all the comfort of your grandmother's quilt. Curl up with it. You won't be disappointed.

James Sutter
Fiction Editor

Illustration by Crystal Frasier

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!

Crystal Frasier
Production Specialist

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Set Sail with The Ship of Ishtar

Monday, November 2, 2009

This week we released the newest Planet Stories book, The Ship of Ishtar, by A. Merritt. Not only is this my personal favorite of the 22 books we have released since the launch of Planet Stories about a year and a half ago, but it's also an interesting look at the Planet Stories process, and how in many ways we here in the office are learning just as much about the history of the most important early authors and books in the science fiction and fantasy fields as our readers are.

I often received letters of thanks form Planet Stories readers for introducing them to authors like Leigh Brackett, C. L. Moore, or Henry Kuttner. Most of these authors began their careers in the 1930s and early 1940s, publishing their stories in the pre-war pulp magazines like the original Planet Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and similar magazines.

In order to locate and restore the oldest, most complete texts of the tales we've published so far, I have accumulated a respectable selection of pulp magazines. One of my absolute favorites was called Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Along with its sister magazine, Fantastic Novels, editor Mary Gnaedinger culled the vast archives of the Munsey Magazines (primarily Argosy and All-Story in their various forms and spin-offs), collecting the best fantastic material for affordable reprints. In some ways FFM was the "original" version of our Planet Stories book line, only in this case they reprinted work from the first three decades of the twentieth century almost exclusively.

Two things strike me as fascinating about these magazines beyond the actual stories they contained (many of which were brilliant) and the fact that a woman was setting the original "canon" of science fiction and fantasy in an era when many other women had to hide behind pseudonyms to get their work published at all. Beyond those two substantive issues, the things I find most fascinating about these magazines are the art, and the reader letter column.

The art stands out particularly because most of it (especially early on) came from the peerless pen of Virgil Finlay, for my money the finest illustrator ever to work in the pulp field and one of the greatest American illustrators of all time, period. Finlay's distinctive scratchboard style, fine figure work, and juxtaposition of light and dark tones is breathtaking more than six decades after it was originally commissioned, and his work brings a continuity to the canon of Famous Fantastic Mysteries that might otherwise have been less clear, different as the stories published in the magazine may have been. Many of Finlay's works have been reprinted over the years (and a Google image search will turn up hundreds more), but like the authors whose work he illustrated, he was amazingly prolific. Many of his illustrations appear only in their original pulp form, so opening a "new" issue of FFM rescued from a used book or magazine shop can often feel like digging for visual treasure.

Beyond the stories and illustrations, tacked onto the ends of the magazines and presented in tiny type, came the letters to the editor, often dozens at a time. In the course of praising or criticizing a given issue's content, these letters often include praise of authors and stories that are nearly forgotten today. How many readers other than the most dedicated literary archeologists know much about authors like E. Charles Vivian or Charles B. Stilson? Beyond King Solomon's Mines and perhaps She, who can name the titles of further adventures of H. Rider Haggard's character Allan Quatermain or the dozens of other high-adventure fantasy novels he wrote in the late nineteenth century? FFM published many of them, and the letter columns are filled to bursting with suggestions on even more minor or forgotten works that were fading into obscurity (rightly or wrongly) more than 60 years ago. Of course, even back then, fantasy fans could agree on very few things.

One thing almost everyone seemed to agree on, however, was the overwhelming quality and beauty of language in the works of A. Merritt, particularly his groundbreaking fantasy The Ship of Ishtar.

Merritt's influential 1919 novel The Moon Pool has been in print more or less consistently since it was first published, and it was one of several stories in the very first issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries that solidified the magazine as a major success that would last more than a decade (not bad for a pulp focused almost exclusively on reprints!). He was a major stylistic influence on authors like H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, C. L. Moore, and Henry Kuttner.

Prior to coming across praise for his works in the letter pages of FFM, I'd never really heard of him. I came to Lovecraft decades ago, and in subsequent works by the above-named authors I always identified the florid, lush description as particularly Lovecraftian. In fact, Lovecraft was a great admirer of Merritt, and it's clear that Merritt's style was a huge influence upon him.

Listen to what HPL said about Merritt in a letter to a friend, praising the Merritt novel The Metal Monster: "[Merritt] has a peculiar power of working up an atmosphere and investing a region with an aura of unholy dread... the most remarkable presentation of the utterly alien and non-human that I have ever seen. Merritt is certainly great stuff—he has a subtle command of an unique type of strangeness which no one else has been able to parallel."

In the early 20th century, Merritt was considered, if not the most popular fantasist (that honor probably goes to Edgar Rice Burroughs), certainly among the top two or three fantasy authors in America. A journalist by trade, Merritt edited the prestigious American Weekly for Willian Randolph Hearst, and was one of the best-paid journalists in the world, bringing in an annual salary of $100,000 at the time of his death in 1943.

His busy career left him relatively little time for fiction writing, limiting his output to fewer than a dozen novels and about the same number of short stories. All are infused with powerful, vivid imagery, an unparalleled sense of place, and unforgettable characters.

This month's Planet Stories release, The Ship of Ishtar, is considered by most critics the finest of Merritt's masterworks, a precursor of the sword and sorcery genre that would come to inform the birth of fantasy roleplaying, and one of the most important fantasy novels of the early twentieth century. Merritt was the late Gary Gygax's favorite writer, and up until the month of Gary's recent death, he kept pushing me to publish some of his works. I wish Gary could have survived to see us get to The Ship of Ishtar, but I know he would have been happy to have one of his favorite tales presented to the audience of fantasy enthusiasts he helped to create and maintain.

The Planet Stories edition of The Ship of Ishtar features Merritt's complete, preferred text for the first time in more than 60 years. It also includes 10 beautiful prints by Merritt's favorite artist and friend, Virgil Finlay, collected into a single volume for the first time ever. Prominent modern author Tim Powers provides a compelling introduction, and the book comes wrapped in a beautiful, pulpy cover by artist Kieran Yanner.

Illustration by Virgil Finlay

I am enormously proud of this book. Many of you have sent me letters of thanks and encouragement for introducing you to some of the classic authors we've covered so far in Planet Stories. And if not for Planet Stories, I may not have discovered this book, so I offer my own thanks to Gary Gygax, and my own invitation to all of you to order the book and give Planet Stories and A. Merritt a try.

One of the world's finest fantasies awaits!

Erik Mona, Publisher
At the World Fantasy Convention
San Jose, California
October, 2009

Illustration by Craig J. Spearing

Seekers of Secrets—Skyreach and Ambrus

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Time for another preview of Pathfinder Chronicles: Seekers of Secrets!

Skyreach: This five-towered fortress, visible from miles away over Abaslom's skyline, is the heart of the Pathfinder Society. Here the Decemvirate rules and make its rare pronouncements beneath the enchanted skylights of the Great Hall in the central tower, and both resident and visiting Pathfinders sequester themselves in cozy lounges to study, socialize, and plot future missions. Packed tight with chambers ranging from well-known ballrooms named after nations to innumerable trophy rooms and museums to rows of featureless doors identified only by number, Skyreach is a warren that only the Decemvirate understands completely. The majority of its mysterious spaces are off-limits to all but those specifically invited by Ambrus Valsin, the venture-captain who runs the daily operations of the Grand Lodge at the Decemvirate's command.

Meticulous with details and annoyed by inefficiency, Ambrus makes a point to supervise all important duties within the Grand Lodge, and keeps a long list of relatively safe but time-consuming jobs on file, ready to hand out to rookie Pathfinders to keep them busy and out of the way of more experienced agents. Tall and meticulously groomed, Ambrus doesn't appreciate backtalk and reserves particularly strenuous assignments for those who annoy him.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, Pathfinder Chronicles

At Long Last: Seekers of Secrets

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Illustration by Craig J. Spearing

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Pathfinder Chronicles: Seekers of Secrets was delayed a long time, probably because of several nasty curses brought on by too-curious chroniclers into forbidden lore. The book is finally out the door, which means it's time for some previews! This time it's an excerpt from one of the book's many biographies of notable Pathfinders and a hint about how some powerful individuals bind their ioun stones to their flesh to keep these treasures safe.

Eliza Petulengro: Absalom's newest venture-captain hails from war-torn Galt. She is a talented diviner with a photographic memory for text, names, and faces. Soft-spoken and polite, she has a pleasant habit of calling initiates by name even after meeting them only once. Though she appears bookish, this is just a facade to deter suitors and keep her affairs private.

Implanting Ioun Stones: Not all the secrets of the ioun stones lie with the Azlanti. While the First Humans mastered the intrinsic powers of the stones, uncovering new attributes and binding them to devices, the Thassilonians explored the interaction of ioun stones and the living mind and body, and in time devised a means of implanting an ioun stone within the flesh. This process, originally believed irreversible, protected the ioun stone from harm and theft while still providing its full powers to the owner.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, Pathfinder Chronicles

Illustration by Frances Tsai

Book of the Damned: Moloch and Stygia

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Now that we're back from the adventures, misadventures, and unexpected romances of Gen Con, it's again time to talk about one of our upcoming books, Princes of Darkness, Book of the Damned Volume I. I'll just quote Master Schneider's text.

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Moloch: All who burn join the armies of Moloch. A being of seething wrath, the Lord of the Sixth embodies both absolute discipline and directed destructive force. General of Hell's Armies, Moloch endlessly trains his infernal legions to be the greatest martial force in the multiverse.

Whatever body Moloch might have once possessed was consumed in flame long ago. Now, the General of Hell is an embodiment of the most devastating, inhuman aspects of war, a creature of fearsome black metal and spiked armor encrusted with the blood of countless opponents. With his clawed gauntlets he exerts the strength of a titan to heft the blood-soaked sword Ramithaine and the horned battleaxe Goreletch. Even in his most tempered moods, flames leap from Moloch's eyes, flaring nostrils, and every other joint and chink of his scorched armor, this blaze growing more wild as the archfiend's ire rises. He never removes his armor, though on the rare occasions where it has become damaged in the heat of battle, nothing lies beneath but flames and the faint outline of withered, fire-charred bones.

Stygia: Every lie spoken throughout the planes condenses as a drop of poison to flood Stygia, the fifth layer of Hell. Amid the tangled swamps and fetid jungles rise moldy ruins, mired temples to false deities, and whole blasphemous cities. The waters of the Styx mix with the layer's venomous bogs, creating vast noxious moors before flowing into vast black seas. Dilapidated avenues paved with cracked stones—remnants of empires that never were—cut through these dense bogs, though they regularly succumb to unexpected floods of stagnant water. Travelers who brave the paths or manage to fight their way through the swamps for long enough inevitably discover examples of the layer's countless ruins, overgrown temples and cathedrals, disparate crumbling monuments, and fortresses upturned as if flung by gigantic and careless hands. Most of these decrepit structures—drawn in their entirety from innumerable mortal worlds—still bear artifacts and artistry from forgotten epochs, typically idols and icons of deities and divine forces unknown to even the longest-lived inhabitants of the multiverse.

In the mountainous scriptorium called the Library of Oaths, diabolical clerks record every mortal oath with a damning consequence. These records prove binding, and those who break their words are damned to eternity in Stygia for as long as their vows remain within the library vault.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, Pathfinder Chronicles

Illustration by Frances Tsai

Princes of Darkness

Monday, August 3, 2009

lllustration by Kieran Yanner

Wes is a pretty creepy guy. He always wears black and red, never smiles, lights creepy candles at his desk, and his voice is a spine-chilling hiss.* What better person to write Book of the Damned, Vol. I, Princes of Darkness?

This book is a seven-course feast of lore about Hell, devils, and Asmodeus. You get descriptions of all nine layers of Hell, each layer's archdevil ruler (such as Dispater, the Iron Lord of Dis), new hellish spells and magic items, a new diabolist prestige class (and her imp "animal companion"), information about the influence of true names and sigils on controlling devils, promotion and demotion among the ranks, five new kinds of devils (including the levaloch, soldiers of Malebolgia), and excerpts from an ancient book penned by an exiled angel about the nature of Hell and the origin of Asmodeus himself. The art is beautiful and evocative; art director Sarah Robinson has outdone herself yet again, producing a beautiful book about the ultimate place of evil.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, Pathfinder Chronicles

*Wes is actually very nice, outgoing, and fun to work with. And I'm not just saying that because he's hissing. A lot.

Snagged from the Vault: Pathfinder RPG Bestiary

Monday, July 20, 2009

Work continues frantically as we put the final touches on the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. In anticipation of the light at the end of this beastly tunnel, here's a host of new divine creatures preparing to come to your PCs' aid in just a few short weeks!

Art by Michael Jaecks	Art by Alex Schim
Art by Andrew Hou	Art by Kieran Yanner

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Snagged from the Vault: Pathfinder RPG Bestiary

Monday, June 29, 2009

While the denizens of the Pit have been slavishly wrangling hundreds upon hundreds of beasts both fascinating and foul, we've managed to slip in and liberate a particularly interesting few. Now behold! We bring to you, our faithful readers, the terrible visages of four terrifying creatures, taken directly from the pages of the fabled Pathfinders' Bestiary that nears completion deep in the Vault of the Golem. Some of these creatures are obvious, yet what the others are, we cannot say. Perhaps you, dear readers, can tell us what they are?

Art by Eric Lofgren	Art by Andrew Hou
Art by Kieran Yanner	Art by Michael Jaecks

Watch close for further glimpses into the gruesome Bestiary; next time, expect fearsome creatures from the Great Beyond!

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners