Fresh meat! We have to keep the cave raptors downstairs fed!
Hi there! My name is Meredith Kniest, and I'm the latest edition of the Paizo Intern. I've been asked to explain a bit about myself and my experience at Paizo so far, which frankly is an awesome relief from staring at Excel spreadsheets. Oh, the joys of interning.
I'm currently a senior at the University of Washington studying English and French. After having scoured internship postings in the greater Seattle area for months, and with gloomy national job forecasts echoing about my brain in the available space between Shakespeare and Balzac, I was beginning to resign myself to a long and dismal job search. That's when I came across Wesley's ad for an editing internship with Paizo. With a peculiar amount of trepidation did I apply—after all, the closest I've ever come to playing a tabletop RPG was creating fantasy adventures for my little brother using Playmobil people and Lincoln Logs, long ago, in the dusty days before Zelda took her first three-dimensional step, when Doug was the best show on television.
Three weeks into the position, I've learned a great deal about the Pathfinder universe, though I still feel like the greenest noob since Leeroy Jenkins, especially around the other Paizo employees, whose daily conversation—Hey, have we ever used flying cats as monsters? and Do we have a rule for wading through water?—flits by my ears like Miles Davis at a fifth-grade band concert.
My first intern assignment is to continue a job begun by interns of yesteryear: cataloging all of the Pathfinder rules not included in the Core Rulebook.
Yes, ALL of them.
It took me a couple of days to comprehend the daunting scale of this task. It's doubtful that it will be finished by me. Or by anyone, ever. I was discouraged, I won't lie. I had hoped to really wow my new employers with amazing ninja cataloging skills. (Hey, I take pride in my work. It keeps me going after caffeine has worn off.
However, I've been finding solace and diversion in the compelling, sometimes morbid storytelling that seems to make Pathfinder unique. I'm used to video game storytelling. Pathfinder is on a whole new, deeper, infinitely more variable and complex level than video games are capable of. Often I completely forget to catalog a rule or a stat block because I'm gripped by the lycanthropy of Duristan Silvio Ariesir or the perversions of the Runelords of Runeforge.
Feel free to send me your prayers, your derision, or any obscure Pathfinder rules you can think of. I'll be here, reading about the Blood Veil in Korvosa and, possibly, forgetting to do my job.
Wow, so it’s week 4 already. Time has flown. I’ve been keeping fairly busy with two big projects. Project 1: compiling a list of spells from the Core Rulebook. Project 2: compiling a notebook of all past art used in the Pathfinder series of publications. Hefty projects. (Tedious? A bit. Necessary? Apparently.) The role of the intern, what more can be said? But there are far worse things than looking at cool artwork all day. Not to mention I am attempting to file some spell descriptions in the back of my mind, should I ever decide I’m up to the task of trying for some Pathfinder fiction.
Other than that, I have been delving into the world of editing, constantly improving my knowledge of the Pathfinder world. In fact, one of the first pieces I edited had to do with the deity Gozreh. All I could think was—now there’s a god. Male and female, gentle and fierce, giving life and death; experiencing all aspects of the world in one instant, content with everything revolving in a constant cycle just so long as life continues. Quite impressive. I found myself thinking that if I would ever worship a deity in the Pathfinder world, that would probably be the one. Though of course I don’t know most of the other gods yet. But hopefully I will someday—I’ve got time.
Well, that’s about it for now. Just eagerly soaking up information every day that I’m here. I’ll check back in later.
Where to begin... I suppose I should begin with, well, an introduction. So hello, my name is Kelley, I'm a new editorial intern here at Paizo. It's pretty exciting. The crowd here seems awesome—my kind of crazy.
I'm a little ashamed to say that I've actually never played the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. I've played D&D once or twice in my not-so-distant-but-still-distant-enough past. Usually I ended up just reading the books and manuals for fun. Mainly I'm a fantasy book buff—can't get enough of them. I love to write—and edit. I think editing is almost as fun as writing, strangely enough. So I'm hoping I can get my feet wet here while I work with the editorial team. I graduated from the UW with an English Creative Writing degree (and I refuse to become a teacher, so don't even ask), so with any kind of luck, I will one day fulfill my ever-optimistic dreams of becoming an editor.
With that said... you'll be seeing a lot more of these posts from me as the weeks go on. Once I start getting my hands dirty, I'll let you all know how much awesome fun I'm having (or beg you to come rescue me... we'll see how it goes.)
Well, it was a fun adventure, but sadly, my journey as an editorial intern with Paizo must come to an end. The length of my internship seemed only a few weeks at most, though it has indeed been several moons, and other responsibilities vie for my attention.
I’ve gotten a taste of all this industry has to offer while working here, from the exciting realm of creative writing and development, manifesting wondrous creatures as well as legendary characters, to the slightly less glamorous—but nonetheless vital—task of alphabetizing spell lists and creating tables. Oh, I shall never forget the sea of tables I created for Paizo. If one can imagine mountains—nay, alps—of Excel spreadsheets, then one has ideated but a fraction of the truth. I could go on for paragraphs about the plethora of tables, which, if pasted side-by-side on a wall and gazed at from afar, might resemble ancient Osirian hieroglyphics that tell of brave adventurers, or perhaps an epic tale of Thassilonian lore scrawled across countless scrolls, or maybe even the systemized end product of a sleep-deprived college student who happens to write about dragons and stuff.
Poetic reminiscences aside, it’s been a good experience. I’ve still got another year of college left up at Western Washington University, but this internship has helped reinforce my dream of writing material for tabletop games such as Pathfinder, and assured me that I am on the right track. Perhaps you’ll see my name in future products, loyal reader, and you’ll be able to excitedly gather your comrades, your shaky hands barely able to retain their grasp on the Adventure Path or module clenched between your sweaty fingers, and you’ll show all your friends and say, “Look! I commented on that guy’s blog post before he became famous!” And everyone will look at you in awe, and solemnly utter things like, “Dude, are you hyperventilating?” and “Woah, are your palms sweating over this? Do you need a doctor?”
Until that fateful day, readers, I bid you farewell, and thank you for bearing with my garrulous blog posts and lack of proficiency in regards to the realm of corporate salesmanship. (On an unrelated note, buy more Paizo stuff! It’s good! Real good!)
Well, Friday was my first day as the new Editorial Intern at Paizo, and I must say I'm not disappointed.
One of the first things I noticed in the office was that everyone spoke like a GM at all times, talking about drawing up maps and discussing the finer points of the gnomes of Golarion. It's awesome. Being the only Pathfinder GM in my group back home, my players often don't understand the work that goes into running a game, which, as I'm sure many GMs can attest to, is a little frustrating at times.
At any rate, it has been a fun transition, going from an environment in which I am the most experienced and rules-learned person at the table to Paizo, where I am practically the polar opposite. It puts GMing into perspective, to be certain; crafting the world of Pathfinder is a bit more daunting a task than designing a two-level dungeon for Saturday night's session. Which makes me all the more excited to work here.
As many of you know, having followed this internship period with great fervor (I have been assaulted by paparazzi no less than seven times), I will soon be vanishing from this land.
There are some benefits to my departure. Once more I will be addressed by other people as "Matt" and not "starving intern," which is less of a title really and more of the beginnings to a declarative statement (read: "Starving interns, bookmark this PDF!").
Some of my best memories were those times when I could ride someone's coattails into the building, having been given no keys of my own. This I savored in lieu of the alternative: braving the main entrance thorough the customer service lair, wherein waits Cosmo, destroyer of worlds. Though I was threatened only once by way of nerf gun, I was also accosted in the name of a ham sandwich, which I have yet to procure. It would be incorrect for me to suggest that I tremble at every sound I hear, but at times I do flinch and shrink away from what I fear may be the inevitability of Cosmo's ham-sandwichless wrath.
I remember relearning a lot of gaming. It's a well-kept secret (among staff here, even) that I landed this internship without much gaming experience at all. So little, in fact, that I had only three d20 Modern sessions under my belt and one 3.5 session. By that token, I'm completely thrilled to have been given this opportunity, as well as to have played in Crystal's campaign (mentioned by Tyler here).
I remember the sparse but consistently entertaining vignettes of the life experiences of Sean K Reynolds. I remember data entry, copy edits, development meetings, manuscript styling, playtests, teaching myself Photoshop on a whim, arranging battles between weresabretooth tigers and the lava dragon on my desk, drinking lots of tea, bookmarking PDFs, and repairing Planet Stories manuscripts. I remember teaching Wes the intern's point of view on free food: "Do not question free food, for it is both free, and food." I remember my first editorial pass on Pathfinder Society Scenario #36: Voice in the Void. I remember how its writer soon came to work for us. I remember the occasional free meal, sometimes paid for by you, the wonderful fans.
In fact, I remember everything fondly with the exception of Highway 520, that notoriously temperamental highway and bridge that separates the Paizo offices from "mainland" Seattle. To the hour of traffic I sat in each night after departing, I bid you adieu.
To all my fellow Pathfinder fans, I'll likely see you on the messageboards, and to the rest of the staff... I'll see you at PaizoCon '10. Wish me luck in my senior year of college, and more than that, luck in finding a job afterwards!
Goblins Terrorize Bathhouse: Cunning Plan Revealed As Many Local Hunting Dogs Found Dead
Friday, December 11, 2009
Earlier this year, fellow intern Matt and I were invited to begin playing in a Pathfinder RPG game run by local resident Crystal Frasier. We accepted, and Matt, Ross Byers (later to leave us for reasons involving Will saves and girl-cooties), and I began our quest to become... The Stuff of Legends. Deciding to make my life difficult, I made Klar, the burly and buff bluffing bard, Matt rolled up Zirithanis the hobo druid and Destroyer-of-Worlds-Fetcher-of-Dreams-Maxwell, his longtime friend and goblin-hating murderous dog of war, while Ross Byers began his quest as the excessive sorcerer, Aurelis. Our team assembled, The Stuff of Legends' first dabble into adventuring follows.
Meeting with the mayor, we understood that we were to stop mysterious sabotage attempts on a hopeful resort town in the Varisian Gulf. Naturally, our business powwow was interrupted by screams: Goblins had invaded the bathhouse! Having studied Goblinoid languages in a Chelish Opera College, I tried to negotiate with them, but their crude language and dubious use of the honorifics "dog-lover" and "ugly-face," made communication difficult. While I eventually gained their trust, my inquiries into why they would invade a bathhouse were met with confusion over failed translations of the words "bath," "clean," "soap," and "hot water." They began to suspect that I wanted to cook them, eventually leading us to armed conflict.
After Maxwell the Dog dispatched two of the goblins (Aurelis proved his worth as an electric stove, cooking one with shocking grasp), we entered the bathhouse, only to be ambushed again! Two stirges and a goblin sniper were difficult foes, yet, with the ever-suspect "oh, are you still singing?" of bardsong, Maxwell destroyed all opposition. Afterward, finding the public bath infested with vipers, we left them for the town's pest control. When we later realized that was Zirithanis' job, we went back and he charmed them into a wicker basket and left them at the edge of town. When we later heard a picnicker was killed by vipers, we blamed Zirithanis.
However, being playtest time, an unexpected enemy followed us into town: the Goblin Oracle! She was one of the most feared enemies we have ever fought, especially since we lacked Aurelis's help (he was sleeping off breakfast in his 100-gp suite on the coast). Perhaps it was her big hat, or maybe the threat of goblin rash from her two mangy rat-dogs, or maybe her fury over the sacked child she took hostage that was greased out of her hands, but the strength of her unusually fearsome blows felled both Zirithanis and me at different points. Our leapfrog healing tactics took her by surprise, however, keeping us both in the fight. In the end, Maxwell the Dog killed her, jumping over a mountain, stopping a flood by barking, and then arriving home in time to snap her neck and take the glory for himself. Next: Maxwell Defeats Giant Wheeled Eidolon and Eats It.
Much has happened here at Paizo since I last wrote. While here, I had the privilege of watching Wayne Reynolds's iconic character sketches come in one by one, and stood in the circle of other staff gaping and gawking. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly?), nobody's favorite is the same. In my unartistic opinion, that is simply a testament to the skill of our Mr. Reynolds (who caught the Firefly pun?), who can capture six new and distinctive characters in a way that appeals differently to everyone—player, GM, intern...
As for what I've been working on, two jobs have demanded the majority of my time here. The first was patchworking the freelance texts that are to be a part of our GameMastery Guide into chapters, and then styling them to match our Paizo house style.
An ongoing task has been the dreaded Rules Database—something Wes has apologized for countless times. When it's finished, it'll be a series of Excel spreadsheets that catalogues each and every monster, magic item, feat, spell, trait, piece of equipment, prestige class, monster template, and trap that has ever appeared in a Paizo RPG product (both in the 3.5 rules set and our shiny new PFRPG rules set). Did I mention the "each and every" part? It's still in the process and nowhere close to being edited—what with all the other craziness people actually pay for taking up nearly every waking hour—but eventually it should be something pretty cool.
I've also done a lot of copyediting, a few development passes of elements for Kingmaker, and am now working on a bit of Planet Stories styling. It's all very exciting!
Until the next time, keep it classy, enjoy the playtests (the last two coming up soon!), pick up the new Powers comic, listen to the Rush discography, and watch Serenity four or five times.
Interns! Mash them, smash them, dissolve them in energy drink!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
During my first week, I was surprised to find there is a significant lack of chaotic evil in the office. I was not whipped by a winged baboon-devil while organizing the archive, and I am given free coffee that I did not have to make myself. I was expecting that Matt and I would be told early on to "prove our worth" by enduring psychological torture or some bloody nonsense, but so far I have not had to pull my sawtooth sabre from where it is taped beneath my desk and pounce on him like an unsuspecting puppy with a remote-activated bomb collar. Though we are treated well, our nametags haven't arrived yet, and my Paizo-embroidered handkerchief scratches my nose a bit.
Well, we are on to introductions, children of Zo; I am Editorial Intern Tyler. I dwell in a cubicle with Editorial Intern Matt. He's quite nice, and sometimes I actually believe that we are not plotting each other's deaths via falling gargoyles and sabotaged car engines. Even though we don't actually have a bloody rivalry, I am still generally a happy person. I like half-orcs and barbarians, though I occasionally dabble in sorcery and the bluff skill. There are times I lie awake in bed having elaborate fantasies about being John Connor. I'm friendly to all woodland animals as long as they're cute and more than ten feet away. I don't know much about cars. I eat at Subway too much. I like Lady Gaga because she is a classy lady and could be a villain from Cheliax. In addition, I like to talk about myself (to myself), whine too much to family members, and I'm famous for once telling a story that, in its entirety, lasted 4 hours.
I'm somewhat new to the Paizo family, but so far this internship has been really fun. Hopefully I'll get to know some of you on good terms, and the rest won't hate me enough to complain.
Questions are springing to your mind just about now, I suppose. Synapses are firing, tickling with neuron transfers. Questions like "Who is this fellow? What is he doing here? What is his favorite flavor of ice cream?"
These questions are to be answered in due time, of course, and to facilitate these ends, I must insist that you take a seat around the Campfire of Good Times while I spin some lore.
In a dark time not so long ago, there was a young English Major at the University of Washington. His days were filled with classes, homework, and more horribly, lots and lots of retail work. One can only take so much retail work, but this young adventurer had need to pay the bills.
Nevertheless he applied for an unpaid publishing internship and now only works retail on the weekends, which, though undeniably a poor economic decision, is one more spiritually rewarding, as it allows him to do Awesome Stuff and be surrounded by Awesome People.
This includes but is not limited to: seeing products before they make their way to the press, copyediting said documents, and more generally, watching the creative process as it happens.
I can tell already that my time here at Paizo will be uniquely rewarding in these things alone, and it is my pleasure to be among these great people and to serve you great fans. If you want to see the first fruits of my labor, pick up Pathfinder Society Scenario #35: Voice in the Void by Rob McCreary, due out October 28th. And if you find any proofreading errors, uh… blame someone else. What do you expect to come out of a desk like this?
I'm still working on the decorations, but you guys said you wanted pictures of the new place... And for the record, my favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla. Bow to the versatility.
And thus, the Bastards of Erebus playtest comes to a close, and we, the brave and foolhardy adventurers, are victorious. Highlights of the night: my half-orc dropping to negative 1 but holding out for one more round (thanks to orc ferocity) and dealing max damage before finally dropping; David's rogue once again getting hoodwinked by some sort of fear effect/spell and running terrified into the dark; one of the villains, down to about 1 hit point, turning to the main antagonist and pleading for help, only to have the villain reply, "Your sacrifice will be remembered!" and then torching him—along with us—with burning hands; our dwarf fighter running after said antagonist while he fled, pulling out his throwing axe and ending his movement just in range, and then hurling it into the back of his skull, just as he was about to vanish out the door, slaying him and thus concluding the adventure.
All in all, a fun adventure. It was also a lot of fun playtesting the latest version of the Pathfinder rules, which I really enjoyed. I'm not sure if we'll get to participate in the playtests for the rest of the AP, but I can say I'm really excited to find out what happens next...
Hail Paizonians! David and I just wanted to give a sneak glimpse into the office by sharing what passes for a casual gaming collection around here: the Paizo bookshelf.
This bulky display holds a staggering array of RPGs, enough to bury a grown man (or several small
children). Ready to be thumbed through for inspiration, relaxation, or pure nostalgic bliss, these dusty tomes are outdone only by the complete volumes of Amazing Stories that march one after another across the top like some sort of Hugonian crown. And if you didn't feel like reading, you could always just play a game of Star Wars foosball!
How anyone gets any work done with this kind of distraction is a wonder...
Between us, the number three must have come up at least a dozen times. Still, it's higher than 1, so I guess that means we're getting better. Plus it was fun to watch Sean bang his head repeatedly against the dry erase board after the tenth 3 popped up.
David forgot his dice again, I think that's what did us in (not only did he forget his dice, but when he first sat down he had forgotten his character and pencil, too!). Later his rogue was hoodwinked into attacking Beaky, which kept us out of the fight for several rounds (me because my druid was busy chasing after him, trying to prevent him from killing my eagle).
I think the adventure is getting close to wrapping up, though. Sean said that if it weren't for the astoundingly poor rolls session after session, we surely would have been finished by now. He left us at a cliffhanger: right as my character burst through a door (that's her new gig, bursting through doors before the rest of the party is ready), he set up the room and called it a night, with a newly revealed NPC calling out his chilling promises of death and ruin; unless it was Sean saying it out of character to us, I'm not quite sure...
Today we continue the series on Paizo's Appendix N with the second part of my interview with James Jacobs, the editor-in-chief of Pathfinder. We pick up where we left off, as James finishes discussing his most important literary influences and closes the interview with an explanation of his favorite horror films.
James: Stephen King's Dark Tower books were particularly influential, as they are as much magic and science fiction as they are horror. What's neat is that all of his stories are interconnected, like Lovecraft's. Names and locations reappear and become part of King's mythos—which also includes nods to the Cthulhu Mythos. I think King very successfully straddles the fine line between homage and pastiche, as it's easy enough to write in the style of Lovecraft and other classic horror authors, but much harder to use those themes while writing with your own voice. Stephen King does this admirably.
F. Paul Wilson, and particularly his character Repairman Jack, was another big influence. The series of stories featuring Repairman Jack are like modern-day X-Files, except that one of the primary themes is the idea that it's just one man versus cosmic horror.
Ramsey Campbell was another influence; he's a British author who began his career writing Lovecraftian horror fiction but later moved on to more psychological horror themes such as madness, ghosts, and deranged murderers.
The Descent, by Jeff Long, really captured my imagination. Without giving away too many details, the novel is essentially about a real-world Darklands. Humans live on the surface of the world, oblivious to the fact that "other" descendents from our common ancestors live beneath them; in the novel, Long explains that, over the course of human history, these creatures have served as the basis for humanity's shared myths of devils living beneath the earth.
David: That's quite an extensive list of fiction! But you're even bigger movie buff, correct? Tell us about the movies that most influenced you.
James: There's probably too many to name all of them; I have a wall of DVDs in my apartment. In terms of movies, my main interest is still horror. When I was a kid, my dad and I would watch Creature Features, a TV series that aired a new monster flick every Saturday night. So my love of horror movies began at an early age. My two all-time favorites are, without a doubt, Alien and John Carpenter's The Thing.
To rattle off other big influences, there's The Blair Witch Project, Godzilla (which asks the question "what if the atomic bomb was actually a creature?"; there is a scene in the movie where a bunch of kids are horribly burned and crying for their moms, not realized that they've been killed—it's super-grisly), Jaws, the Exorcist, Lord of the Rings, Schwarzenegger's Conan, Psycho, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Lilo & Stitch (Stitch served as a primary inspiration for Pathfinder goblins, both in terms of look and personality), and the classic 1950s horror film Tarantula.
Whenever I assign adventures to freelance authors, I like to point them to movies that will give them an idea of the tone we are shooting for—it's much faster for authors to find inspiration by watching a 2-hour movie than to read an entire book, although if they have time in the sometimes too-short deadlines we give them, books can remain a great source of inspiration. For instance, I told Richard Pett to check out the old Hammer Horror movies when he was writing "The Skinsaw Murders" and pointed Nick Logue at The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Deliverance for "The Hook Mountain Massacre."
Overall, I would have to say that my two biggest inspirations are H. P. Lovecraft for books, and John Carpenter for movies.
Thus concludes my interview with James Jacobs. Thanks for taking the time to discuss your biggest inspirations, James, and thanks for reading, Paizonians! Come back again as we continue to expand Paizo's own Appendix N!
I love it when a plan comes together. We had pressed forward with our arrangement, but suddenly discovered a new element that had to be overcome—a lone guard. We decided to do the only smart and reasonable thing... kill him. After we feathered our foe, Sean sketched a quick depiction of the quite-deader-than-dead fella, and then we continued on our merry way, straight into an encounter fest. We only made it a short way in before Sean called it a night, and right now we're chasing down a cowardly fiend who just locked himself behind a door.
Much to our surprise, not only did nobody die this time, but we actually did really well. I think it's because I finally remembered my dice.
One thing I'd like to mention is how I've never had a GM so cunningly use (or insist upon) the rules for light radius. (And, apparently, neither have my 3 companions, since I'm the only one who bought any torches during character creation.) Anyway, I've decided that I like it. It's been adding a whole new dimension to our tactics, which is always fun. In fact, in one of the earlier sessions (I believe the first), our dwarf and some of the "enemy" got into this fun little game of tossing torches back and forth in attempts to grant visibility to one's side while denying it for the other. In this last session, our rogue, who had languished behind for a round to recover his crossbow, was literally left in the dark, which greatly affected his options.
So, during the next episode of "Bastards of Erebus," will our heroes continue on to victory? Will the players finally remember to bring their dice? Will their characters remember to buy some sort of illuminating device? Tune it next time to find out!
Hello Paizonians! I would just like to take a moment to talk about, for those of you who are not already aware, the Pathfinder Wiki. The Pathfinder Wiki is a community project run by our forum's very own yoda8myhead, and to date has over 1,100 articles related to Golarion and various Pathfinder-related products. If you haven't had the pleasure, you should hop on over there and check it out. Or, if you're interested in helping to build a vast database for you and your fellow Pathfinder GMs, contribute something yourself! (There are tutorials and help articles for the wiki illiterate.) While, of course, we don't condone verbatim copies of our products being regurgitated in a public forum, we do appreciate and welcome brief and succinct synopses of Pathfinder content. Basically, it would be great if you know someone who is interested in learning about Pathfinder for you to be able to point them to the wiki and have it do the job of introducing him or her to all the goodness that is Pathfinder.
So, whether you're looking for more information on this character or that country, hoping to introduce your players to Golarion, or want to help build a fantastic Pathfinder resource, stop on by the Pathfinder Wiki when you get the chance.
As part of the ongoing series about Paizo's own Appendix N, I had the opportunity to interview the editor-in-chief of Pathfinder Adventure Path, James Jacobs, about the books and movies that most inspire his own writing. He proved very generous with his time and gave me quite a detailed look into his plan of a "shared mythology" for Pathfinder and the sources that inspired its creation. Once again, the interview proved long enough that I have had to break it into two parts. In this first part, James discusses his literary influences.
David: Although I know you're a huge fan of movies, and horror films in particular, let's discuss books first. Which authors or works have stuck the longest in your mind?
James: H. P. Lovecraft was definitely the biggest inspiration. He's my favorite author, and not just mine: Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Gary Gygax, and others expanded on the themes that he created. Lovecraft didn't want to write about vampires or other classic creatures of horror, as these had become cliché at the time when he was writing, so he created his own pantheon of cosmically horrific, god-like beings. He was particularly successful because he encouraged other authors to use the names he had used. Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and Henry Kuttner were all contemporaries of Lovecraft who communicated with him and were influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos that he created. He also pieced together another pantheon of creatures throughout the works of authors for whom he was a ghostwriter, which expanded the Mythos. So his influence is pretty far-reaching.
This is very much like what's going on with the OGL—here are the base concepts of D&D, and other writers or companies can build and share a single mythology. This is what happened with Lovecraft—his themes of cosmic horror influenced the likes of Stephen King; this was the horror of the ordinary, in which libraries and shacks in the woods could become places of terror. Horror is the main source of my inspiration, and why grisly things are going on in Pathfinder. I like to find authors who can carry on this vision—Nic Logue and Richard Pett being two great examples.
Clive Barker is another big inspiration. My grandma and grandpa introduced me to old horror novels and comics when I was young. I remember reading my grandpa's Vault of the Unknown, Tales of the Unexpected, House of Mysteries, and Beware! My grandma would shove Clive Barker or Stephen King into my hands and tell me, "Read this! You'll enjoy it!" Zon-Kuthon is the most obvious example of Barker's influence on Pathfinder, as he is basically a Cenobite from Hellraiser. As Barker's stories mellowed out and became less gory, they took on a more magical, fantastical tone. In fact, his novel Weaveworld served as a primary inspiration for the demiplane of Kakishon in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #22, "The Edge of Eternity."
It appears that this post has already exceeded the length I was aiming for; the rest of the interview, it seems, must wait for later. In the second installment, James rounds out his discussion of his favorite authors, discusses the fine line between homage and pastiche, and talks about the movies that most influenced his style of game design.
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.
"Forget the dwarf! Tumble past the bad guys, get the bird, and let's get the heck out of here!"
Things were not going well for us. David started calling these playtesting sessions "The Misadventures of Erebus." But still, it was fun. The interesting thing about this playtest was all of the planning and options involved. For this encounter, we had to choose from a number of stratagems. After finally deciding upon one, we launched into action. I again cast entangle (Sean has taken to calling my druid "The Entangler"), summoned an owl, cast magic fang on my eagle, then sent the two avian avengers to flank one of the baddies. We were also using some new rules of Jason's for animal companions, and because of a typo my eagle and summoned ally got severely nerfed. The actual rules are nicely balanced, but my tactic ended up being of little help because of the misunderstanding, and Sean quickly (and gleefully, I might add) turned them into feathery piñatas.
After my eagle, Beaky, and our dwarf fighter dropped, and my summoned ally vanished, I called out the line of the night to David, who refused to either run away or pick up my eagle. I warned him, though, that if he dropped too, I was only picking up my animal companion. Well, to make a long story short, we're going to be refighting this battle next session. ;)
So we continued with the story, and we were soon presented with more stratagem planning. I really like this about the adventure. So far with the 3 parts we have played through, there have always been a number of choices, each with its own interesting tactical advantages and disadvantages. This always ends up with a lot of debating, but I've long been a fan of this sort of thing because it keeps the players engaged. Of course, we always have the standard rush-forward-and-kick-down-the-door option, but unlike many modules out there, this isn't funneling us down a path where our only real options are which door we want to open next.
We had just settled upon our tactic for the third part of the adventure when Sean called it a night. Now we have to wait another week before we get to see if our carefully laid plans will lead to glorious victory or to humiliating defeat... May Shelyn protect us!
David is pretty busy with his appendix posts, so I'm doing the second playtest blog. It began with Sean having us reset and trying our fateful battle over. Pre-battle, we toyed around with some new ideas, but ultimately decided that our last tactic was working pretty well (that is, until we died), and so decided to go with that.
The encounter actually started off a lot better than last time. We took out our first opponent rather speedily... and right about then things started to go against us. First my eagle got taken out. Then our dice betrayed us. Now, I know everyone has had bad dice nights, but this was incredulously, astronomically, and hilariously terrible. Even Sean shook his head in dismay, chalking it up as a first in his book.
That's when we began dropping like flies. The dwarf fighter and my druid were dealing the most damage, but of course this meant that we were the first to drop (meanwhile my eagle stabilized at –9). This left the gnome sorcerer and David's rogue. The gnome, after having a series of unfortunate rolls (like all of us), finally managed to hit one of the baddies while also providing a flanking bonus for the rogue... and then dropped. That left David and the final baddie, mano a mano. It went something like this (and by something, I mean exactly):
Sean: (Rolls a d20) 1. David: (Rolls a d20) 1. Sean: (Rolls a d20) 1. David: (Rolls a d20) 1.
Two rounds in a row! Meanwhile, the gnome, the dwarf, and my druid are slowly bleeding to death. The gnome stabilized at I think –8, the dwarf at –9, and I just kept dying. But then, with a mighty strike with his rapier for 1 point of damage, David dropped the last foe and Sean declared (because he's a nice guy), that David managed to save me—right at –9.
Afterward, we leveled up (woohoo!) and moved on to the next phase of the adventure, which involves some careful planning on our part...
We really enjoyed the adventure (well, the part we got through before suffering from a TPK). In addition to a gnome sorcerer and dwarven cleric, our party contained a half-orc druid (me) and a human rogue (David). David's character was the only native Chelaxian, which actually proved pretty helpful a few times.
I can't really go into too much detail, but I will say that there was a lot of suspense, which provoked a lot of debating over which course of action to take (I always love that!). The battle that did us in was actually already pretty balanced, but we had some extraordinarily poor rolls, while the enemy enjoyed just the opposite.
My druid was kicking butt with her entangle spell, but alas, the spell's effect only reduces Dex mods instead of denying, so it was of little help to the rogue, and the defensive way in which I had cast the spell prevented easy flanking for not only them, but also ourselves.
Sean estimates that the playtest will take about 4 sessions to complete, and David and I are going to take turns blogging about it. Maybe his first blog will be better news than a TPK, but either way I know it will be a blast! Stay tuned.
As was explained in my introductory blog post, the purpose of this series is to create Paizo's very own Appendix N, a semi-comprehensive list of the books, comics, movies, and roleplaying products that influenced each member of the Paizo staff in their work on the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. To begin this series, there seemed no better place to start than with one of the original creators of Golarion and the driving force behind Planet Stories, Erik Mona. He had quite a bit to say. By the time we finished lunch, I had filled three complete pages with notes and had been forced to finish transcribing the interview on a napkin. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), the length of the interview has forced us to break it into three parts. In this first installment, Erik reveals which authors most influenced his idea for the general feel he wanted to give Golarion.
David: What authors or titles stand out to you as most influential on your game design and upon Golarion?
Erik: Robert E. Howard's Conan series, particularly the collections of the original Conan stories that have been published by Del Rey—The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The Conquering Sword of Conan—those ones; Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories; Moorcock's Elric series; China Miéville's stories, particularly Perdido Street Station and The Scar; Jack Vance's 4-book Dying Earth series (which I think is now published in a Dying Earth omnibus); C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry series ; Hugh Cook's 10-book series The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness; H. P. Lovecraft; and Henry Kuttner's The Dark World and Elak of Atlantis.
A lot of these authors and titles influenced the mood and tone of the setting, as far as being sword and sorcery stories. Michael Moorcock's Elric series being the only exception, these stories feature protagonists who are not superhuman; each is just a dude. It's like how Captain America is a regular guy compared to the other Marvel superheroes—he can't fly and doesn't have any remarkable powers. Batman obviously falls into this category as well. The characters in these stories are powerful but not superhumanly so. More importantly, almost, is the idea that the environment itself is the antagonist, and the characters are exceptional—but otherwise ordinary—people who must fight back or the world will destroy them.
Tolkien was an influence only so far as he influenced D&D. The world he created just didn't fit with what we were trying to do with Golarion. To be honest, it is too hopeful, not grim enough. I asked Jason Bulmahn when we were first creating Golarion, rhetorically, if it would be possible for Paizo to build a world without gnomes, dwarves, elves, and the like. Of course we immediately came to the conclusion that it would be impossible, but it gives you an idea of what we were trying to achieve with Golarion.
Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue books were very influential in the way that they showed, through storytelling and world-building, the sort of milieux that the inherent style of a world governed by the game's rules. Even if used simply as a point of departure, that's an invaluable resource. The early Thieves World anthologies were also an influence, more in terms of style and world-view than anything else. Greyhawk and Sanctuary are photocopies of Leiber's Lankhmar, and when it comes to a location most exemplifying the fantasy RPG spirit, Lankhmar is the place.
Thus concludes the first part of my interview with Erik and the first installment of The Fabled Appendix. Next time: Erik discusses how Osirion and Cheliax were born, and the books and horrible vacations that inspired their creation.
The Paizo office isn't just all about the RPGs and trade paperbacks—it's amazing what goes on around here. The other day, I came to work early just to participate in Pierce Watter's weekly taijiquan lesson. It's a great way to start the day; I learned the qigong warm-up exercises, the beginner's pushing hands exercise, and ten ways to kill a man with an eyelash.
Pierce is very knowledgeable about taijiquan (as his 40 years of martial arts training, being the founding editor of Internal Arts magazine, and multiple magazine articles in Kung Fu magazine will attest), and perhaps even more knowledgeable about various Chinese teas. Each day, Pierce prepares a pot of tea, and after the lesson he offered me some of his delicious brew (there's nothing quite like sharing a pot of tea with Pierce Watters while talking to him about Chinese tea culture, taijiquan, or his tenure at TSR).
So, with my day already off to a great start, there was only one way to top it: work on Pathfinder products. I was particularly pleased with this day; David and I completed the first two big projects we were assigned, and we gave an editing pass over a chapter of the upcoming sourcebook Pathfinder Chronicles: The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse. (This book is going to be great; what we read has David and me very excited to see the rest!)
By six o'clock, I was ready to call the day a success, go home and get some dinner (I had skipped lunch), watch some of The Office, and pass out. Little did I know that there was still more awesome headed my way: Sean K Reynolds approached and invited us to join him in his weekly after-work session of miniature painting! Even though I was starving, I had to check it out. So David and I hopped on over to the meeting room where Sean showed us the ropes of this delicate art while assuring us that the process is actually quite simple.
The really cool part was him unveiling a foam case filled with his as-of-yet unpainted miniatures and allowing us to choose one, saying with a smile, "You paint it, you keep it!" How cool is that?! (Incidentally, I chose what looks like a human female rogue, masked and hooded and wielding a longsword.) I'm really excited about these sessions, even though I still find the task a bit daunting. He says it's easy to learn, but then you look at his, and they're seriously works of art.
But you know what, even if I'm totally horrible (which I'm fairly certain will be the case, since I can't even stay in the lines of a coloring book... that's right, I color), it will still be a lot of fun. Also, Sean has some very entertaining anecdotes of various games he's played in with other famed game designers (which kept me there far longer than my growling stomach would have liked). David and I decided these stories absolutely need to go up as blogs, and we'll also be posting pics of our sloppy attempts at miniature painting once we finish our first ones (well, David's might actually be good).
Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and certainly a great way to bookend what is just another day at the office!
For my inaugural blog post, I thought I'd try to hark back to some of the old-school roots that Paizo has blended together to create the world of Golarion. As many members of the Paizo staff have been playing the game since first edition, they've made it a design goal to create a setting that is true to the roots of the hobby while remaining fresh and exciting.
At the time of the publication of the first edition Dungeon Masters Guide in 1979, the book's Appendix N was fairly revolutionary. This appendix consisted of a list of pulp fantasy authors that E. Gary Gygax considered to have had the largest role in shaping Dungeons & Dragons. This list included such famous authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and Michael Moorcock. What made Appendix N so remarkable was that, at the time, most these authors were relatively unknown, with only a handful of older authors enjoying a resurgence of popularity thanks to the efforts of contemporary fantasists such as L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter.
Since the publication of that first DMG, Appendix N has played a role in the development of the hobby that is hard to overemphasize. The authors and works listed in the appendix influenced the earliest editions of the game and continue to steer game designers 30 years later. The first two printings of the first edition Deities & Demigods, for instance, contained the Melnibonéan pantheon from Michael Moorcock's Elric series, as well as the Great Old Ones of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. And today in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, Edgar Rice Burroughs's tales of Mars and Venus have helped to inspire Golarion's own red and green sister planets. Indeed, the whole Planet Stories line was launched with the intent of reintroducing pulp fantasy authors to modern gamers. The roots of Appendix N are deep and far-reaching indeed.
With this in mind, I plan to explore which books, movies, comics, and roleplaying products members of the Paizo staff have found most influential in both their style of design and the development of Golarion. And our first interviewee will be Paizo's own publisher, Erik Mona. Look for it next time!
Part of the joy of being an editorial intern is getting to read all the goodness that is Pathfinder. For free. And before the rest of the world. Recently, I was asked to give an editing pass over a few chapters of the new Pathfinder's Journal, "Dark Tapestry," penned by the prolific and outrageously talented Elaine Cunningham (seriously, who wouldn't want this job?!).
Set in the desert realm of Osirion, this new Pathfinder story does everything a piece of fiction set in an RPG campaign world should do: it reveals believable and interesting characters, it brings the setting to life, and most of all, it makes me want to play a Pathfinder campaign set in Osirion right now.
Really though, the story highlights for me everything I really enjoy about Pathfinder. There is a touch of the familiar, but at the same time, never once can I say, "Hey, I've been here before." While reading the Pathfinder's Journal, I recognized many well-known aspects—a magical item here, a class-name drop there—and even though I have been playing RPGs since I was in junior high, never once did I feel like it was just another tired rehash. And while Osirion clearly draws inspiration from ancient Egypt, never once does it feel like a shallow interpretation of real-life history. While reading Elaine Cunningham's words, it truly felt that if I could somehow peel back the crawling desert sands, it would reveal the bones of countless centuries, a deep, rich, and lived history filled with epic stories and sweeping tales of heroism and tragedy, of which the PCs' adventures comprise only the latest chapter.
So I think I'm going to slip on some sandals, slap on some sunscreen, and head on back over to Osirion. See you there!
Greetings, fellow Paizonians! Last week, Hank Woon and I upgraded our messageboard status from "Pathfinder Subscriber" to "Editorial Assistant"—that's right, we're the newest interns here at Paizo!
I'm David Eitelbach, and I'm as excited (or more so) as many of you probably imagine I would be to get a gig at Paizo. At 23 years old, I'm the youngest member of the Paizo team. My glorious years at college came to an end just as the economy flushed itself down the toilet, so without a job and the prospects of finding a career looking dim, I applied for the editorial internship —hoping beyond hope that Paizo would want me as badly as I wanted to work for them. If I was going to spending my copious amounts of free time reading Pathfinder anyway, why not do it at Paizo and get some editing experience under my belt? Amazingly (it seemed to me), I got the job... er, internship.
When I stepped into the Paizo offices for the first time, I finally understood how Charlie must have felt as he explored Willy Wonka's chocolate factory—there are roleplaying goodies everywhere! Every staff member's desk is piled high with toys; they have a mammoth collection of pulp science fiction and fantasy books, including original, tattered anthologies of every issue of Amazing Stories (it doesn't get more exciting than that for an H. P. Lovecraft fan); the shelves of their library are lined with dozens upon dozens of RPG products (including, to my glee, two Forgotten Realms Grey Boxes); and awesome Wayne Reynolds' cover art for upcoming Pathfinder Chronicles books are tacked to cubicle walls. I was in heaven.
That feeling of elation? Yeah, it's still here, a week later. This is the only time in my memory when I've been sad to leave work and excited to come in the next day. I spend my hours at the office reading and editing the Pathfinder articles I used to pore over during my free time, and I'm proud to help make Paizo products the best in the industry. Plus, I get free copies of all of their products, which is the very definition of awesome.
I have great plans for the blog: creating Paizo's very own "Appendix N," spotlight articles on various regions of Golarion with tips for sandbox-style of play, Planet Stories tie-ins to Pathfinder, and generally talking about the cool things that happen around the office. After all, interning at Paizo is my nerd-dream come true, and everyone else should have a chance to see just how awesome it is!
I'm excited to welcome a few new faces to the Paizo offices: David Eitelbach and Hank Woon, our enthusiastic new editorial assistants! David and Hank are going to help us here in the pit with… well… pretty much everything and anything we can come up with—and not a moment too soon! Expect to see them posting on the boards, blogging about all the cool stuff that crosses their desks, and overall giving us a fresh look inside the Paizo offices. If you have any questions for Dave and Hank, or just want to say "hi," be sure to drop them a "welcome aboard" post!
But that's enough out of me. First up, meet Hank Woon, and tomorrow we'll check in with David.
F. Wesley Schneider Pathfinder Managing Editor
Hello Paizo readers! This is my first blog for Paizo. Who am I, and why am I wasting your time, you ask? I am like you: fan, gamer, and enthusiastic supporter of Pathfinder. But, unlike you, I am not constrained by the typical boundaries set by the stifling paradigm known as "acceptable social behavior" or ridiculous and outrageous theories like "the law." So, through some cunning intelligence-gathering, I managed to locate the address of Paizo's hidden fortress, deep within the unforgiving wilds of Bellevue, Washington, and with no hesitation, set off on a quest to plunder its secrets.
Determined to unravel the delicate mysteries shrouded within, I cleverly forced my way through an unlocked hidden portal marked "Enter." Unfortunately, I was soon captured by Paizo's roving band of tiny, rabid, ninja robots (spawned from the unholy union of spare computer parts and chewing gum, these deceptively fast mechanical menaces are fanatically loyal to the Paizo team).
Now the Paizos have me lashed to a desk, and as punishment are forcing me to edit documents for them. The foolish mortals knew not that this is exactly what I wanted! When they are not looking (or throwing thumb tacks at me, as they are wont to do), I shall leak information about the inner workings of this academy of dark sorcerers; not just the docile, politically-correct image they put forth, oh no, no, no... The truth is much more interesting. There is danger, excitement, romance, adventure... and of course, the robots.
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