GameMastery Guide Preview: Things Get Weird!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Let me let you in on one of the guiding philosophies of the GameMastery Guide. We didn’t make this book to let you run my game, or a “Paizo-brand” game, or any sort of game anyone here thinks you should run. We created the GameMastery Guide to give you the tools you need to run your game the way you want. For example, let me note a few entries in the index:

  • Airships
  • Evil Characters
  • Extraterrestrials
  • Gambling
  • Magic Shops
  • Parallel Worlds
  • Ship Combat
  • Space Travel
  • Steam Power
  • Space Travel
  • Time Travel
  • Undead Uprising

Definitely some unusual stuff in there, and likely several topics you’ll have no interest in including in your game. But if something on that list does strike your fancy, now you’ve got help on how to make it work. These discussions aren’t all meant to give you in-depth rules on how to do this or that: while several provide a host of new rules content—like ship combat and undead uprisings —others walk you through what you need to consider to include such elements in your game. And even if you’ve never thought about taking your game in an atypical direction, who knows what might inspire you? Maybe it is time to unleash an undead uprising on your campaign, or take your PCs where no one has gone before.

Play what your want: that’s the guiding message of this book. Heck, there’s even a section on personalizing published adventures to make them work better for you and your players. Also, rest assured that the topics presented above are some of the weird stuff—the parts of the book that take the discussions beyond the norm. There’s still plenty for GMs who never get tired of traditional sword and sorcery adventure. But how weird does the weird get? Well, I’ll let these crazy illustrations by Florian Stitz and Eva Widermann show you (at least I think those are the artists… Sarah’s out of town this week).

As for next week’s GameMastery Guide Preview: let’s just say that we’ve got some fantastically interesting toolboxes to open.


F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Amiri Anti-Paladins Barbarians Dwarves Eva Widermann Florian Stitz Game Mastering Harsk Iconics Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Rangers Seelah
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Holy steampunk, Batman!

Silver Crusade

Looks at Evil Seelah, Space Amiri, and Steampunk Harsk.

@#$% YEAH.

And as far as I'm concerned, THAT is what the Technic League of Numeria dresses like! :D

All three of them look awesome there. Harsk w/ cigar and steely-eyed staring Seelah...

Amiri seems to have lost a lot of muscle mass and tone...still...

It's always fun to see established characters plugged into other settings/costumes. :)

Pulling for Pirate Merisiel for Ship Combat!

Unless we're talking about Shipping Combat. In which case, Pirate Merisiel and Pirate Kyra.

Also, Valeros with a chainsaw hand and a blunderbuss for Undead Uprising!

Silver Crusade

(hey Yoda! try deleting your posts in the other thread! I just got all of mine. See if that'll fix it)


OMG, if Amiri ever sees this picture, she gonna cut the artist in fine little pieces for drawing her in such a ridiculous outfit.

Since she played the actress in CoT, Seelah seems to really get fond of cosplay ;)

Harsk is very cool like this.

I confirm that we need a Pirate Queen Merisiel.

Silver Crusade

Hm.

"Parallel Worlds"

...Seltyiel's good mirror universe incarnation? With a goatee?

"Extraterrestrials"

LINI.

I'm really interested in what's going to be detailed for Steam Power and Time Travel.

The Exchange Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6

Mikaze wrote:
Also, Valeros with a chainsaw hand and a blunderbuss for Undead Uprising!

He might want that to be a ghost touch chainsaw. I'm just sayin'.

Silver Crusade

Russ Taylor wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Also, Valeros with a chainsaw hand and a blunderbuss for Undead Uprising!
He might want that to be a ghost touch chainsaw. I'm just sayin'.

Considering the winning average for the "camera zoom" deadite....

Point.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

I'm not so sure that a Pirate Queen Merisiel qualifies as "parallel world" at all.


Mikaze wrote:
Also, Valeros with a chainsaw hand and a blunderbuss for Undead Uprising!

Oh, yeah... I'm all for that :)


James Jacobs wrote:
I'm not so sure that a Pirate Queen Merisiel qualifies as "parallel world" at all.

That's good !! We don't want other worlds to take our dear Merisiel, we want to keep her for ourself ;)

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
I'm not so sure that a Pirate Queen Merisiel qualifies as "parallel world" at all.

Pirate Merisiel VS Ninja Merisiel then?


This is amazing! I love Eva Widermann!

Harsk looks great too!

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Space Amiri is really HAWT!!!

This is starting to look really interresting.

I have been wanting to do a Space Opera campaign for a bit, and this may solve the problem of providing a solid rules system [that my players are familiar with] to run it in. :)

Now, I have to go rewatch that movie.


YES.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

What I am *really* interested in is the section on how does technology change a default pseudo-medieval fantasy world. What happens if we drop a printing press ? Steam engine ? Erm, guns ? How do such things alter the conceptual framework of the game world ?

One of my dreams is running a game set in a world of Thief: The Dark Project computer game. A decaying, medieval-meets-Edwardian "early steampunk" setting. Electricity and steam are present, guns are not. No airships, but first submarine is there. I hope that GMG will help me out.

Silver Crusade

Just noticed the Anti-Paladin tag.

In relation with Evil Seelah....hm.....

For such a perversion of my favorite iconic, I really love that design.

Liberty's Edge

Apparently there's a large emphasis on "Space Travel" in the GameMastery Guide, since it's featured in the index twice. ;)

Silver Crusade

Jagyr Ebonwood wrote:
Apparently there's a large emphasis on "Space Travel" in the GameMastery Guide, since it's featured in the index twice. ;)

Either Time Travel or Parallel Worlds can account for that. :P

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Jagyr Ebonwood wrote:
Apparently there's a large emphasis on "Space Travel" in the GameMastery Guide, since it's featured in the index twice. ;)

That so Rocks!!

Paizo Employee CEO

Jagyr Ebonwood wrote:
Apparently there's a large emphasis on "Space Travel" in the GameMastery Guide, since it's featured in the index twice. ;)

We just didn't want you to miss it!

-Lisa

Silver Crusade

Ships = Pirates!
Steampunk!
Space Travel!

Steampunk Space Pirates!

Now I know I gotta get this book!


Given that I just picked up Infinite Space and thought it would make an EXCELLENT game, my only thought on this is YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My Dragonstar conversion is going to be a lot easier.

Contributor

Gorbacz wrote:
What I am *really* interested in is the section on how does technology change a default pseudo-medieval fantasy world. What happens if we drop a printing press ? Steam engine ? Erm, guns ? How do such things alter the conceptual framework of the game world ?

That is pretty much exactly the discussion you'll get in the Technology section of the World Building chapter. How do common advances, like the printing press, and medicine, and firearms, affect a fantasy world. Great stuff!

Contributor

Jagyr Ebonwood wrote:
Apparently there's a large emphasis on "Space Travel" in the GameMastery Guide, since it's featured in the index twice. ;)

There's several redundancies in the index for ease of reference. Just as you'll see "space travel" under both its own heading and under "travel," you'll see other topics appear by themselves and grouped along with related topics as appropriate.

Liberty's Edge

Man... I don't know who ranks higher on my Badass-o-meter Evil Seelah, or Tech Harsk. I'm leaning towards Harsk; mostly because he has got one of the most awesome glares I've ever seen going on.


SO glad I pre-ordered this at my FLGS ... so, when do we gets our grubby mitts on it? Soon? Please? ;)

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16, 2012 Top 32

Gene wrote:
Man... I don't know who ranks higher on my Badass-o-meter Evil Seelah, or Tech Harsk.

Nah. It's all about Space Amiri. Finally, an Amiri I can get behind.

On an unrelated note, I'm seeing lots of steampunk and space opera, but no mention of modern settings. I'm assuming it has to be in there somewhere, what with the time travel and all. Either way, I want to see some stats for modern cars and guns. And Cthulhu-era 1920's cars and guns, too.

Liberty's Edge

Epic Meepo wrote:
Nah. It's all about Space Amiri. Finally, an Amiri I can get behind.

See, I like the normal Amiri. I find her cute in a "Did you just call me cute?! You're a dead man!" kinda way. :p


Gene wrote:
Epic Meepo wrote:
Nah. It's all about Space Amiri. Finally, an Amiri I can get behind.
See, I like the normal Amiri. I find her cute in a "Did you just call me cute?! You're a dead man!" kinda way. :p

IMHO, the problem is that the weapon-size-ratio isn't "Amiri-type". Make that gun 3x bigger it would cover the proper Amiri basic principle!

;)

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

Will this book have any rules on Space Travel?

Liberty's Edge

Slime wrote:

IMHO, the problem is that the weapon-size-ratio isn't "Amiri-type". Make that gun 3x bigger it would cover the proper Amiri basic principle!

;)

I agree! She needs to be carrying around a ship's deck gun or something.

Contributor

Sebastian wrote:
Will this book have any rules on Space Travel?

If you're looking for pages of content on space ship movements and maneuverability, effects of 0 gravity on combat, and the dangers of being exposed to space, don't get your hopes up. This is isn't Pathfinder: Space, or Pathfinder: Pirates, or Pathfinder: Charlemagne's Knights. It's a book about considerations and tools for Game Masters, not a catch-all of wacky rules content. What there is, though - as far as space goes - is a lengthy discussion on creating planets, elements of alien worlds, space travel (via portals, vessels, spells, and such), and extraterrestrials, providing details and advice on what GMs who want to run such games should consider and include should they want to take their games in whatever directions they please. While there are tons of new rules in this book, rather then making its a scatter shot of 50 off the wall topics, the rules in the GameMastery Guide focus on utility and flexibility rather than getting weirdly specific (sorry, no slug chariots and radiation magic herein).

All that being said, if you want to use the space travel section as a springboard, and consider the new ship statistics and combat rules through the lens of space travel, a cagey GM could easily create some pretty interesting (even Spelljammer-like) rules. That's not the specific intention, of course, but then again, the book easily provides a launchpad to build exactly what a GM needs, which, after all, is exactly what the GMG is all about.

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

Wes, my man, I thought we had a humor based mind meld going on after the "what a twist" blog post! I only asked because it was mentioned twice in the summary.

That said, I do like me some space travel, and appreciate the summary of the rules.

Dark Archive

Evil Seelah is pretty hot.

Contributor

Sebastian wrote:

Wes, my man, I thought we had a humor based mind meld going on after the "what a twist" blog post! I only asked because it was mentioned twice in the summary.

That said, I do like me some space travel, and appreciate the summary of the rules.

Troublemaker. :P


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
This is isn't Pathfinder: Space, or Pathfinder: Pirates

But, it could still be Pathfinder: Space Pirates, right?


Avast!
Radioactive Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Zombie Cyborg Time Travellers!
Again!!

Can't wait. o.O


I find Seelah's breast plate most...hypnotic... @_@

The Exchange

I <3 evil Seelah!

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I hope we see evil versions of all the Iconic's including the new ones... granted on a couple of them how would we tell? :)


Dark_Mistress wrote:
I hope we see evil versions of all the Iconic's including the new ones... granted on a couple of them how would we tell? :)

"Evil" seltyiel is a hemp wearing hippy who wishes nothing but happiness to others and loves his parents.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Gene wrote:
Slime wrote:

IMHO, the problem is that the weapon-size-ratio isn't "Amiri-type". Make that gun 3x bigger it would cover the proper Amiri basic principle!

;)

I agree! She needs to be carrying around a ship's deck gun or something.

No. The picture is a subtile movie reference.

As I referenced before, the weapon and costume come from the come from the 1968 movie Barbarella.


Oh nice.
Nice nice nice.

The listed subjects and the alternate iconic characters are really encouraging and adventure-inspiring. I cannot wait to see where Paizo goes with this.


David Fryer wrote:
Evil Seelah is pretty hot.

"Gone to the dark side she has"

Proving once again that bad girls are hotter.


She still looks like a female variant of a certain president... only this time the PR advisors made suggestions how to address the other half of the populace (I mean evil ones not r....)

Silver Crusade

Thinking about it....

I actually wish Reaper could put out minis of these three, especially Evil Seelah.

The Exchange Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6

Lord Fyre wrote:

No. The picture is a subtile movie reference.

As I referenced before, the weapon and costume come from the come from the 1968 movie Barbarella.

The gun really doesn't look much like Barbarella's hand-rifle thingy to me. Costume somewhat like.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Russ Taylor wrote:
Lord Fyre wrote:

No. The picture is a subtile movie reference.

As I referenced before, the weapon and costume come from the come from the 1968 movie Barbarella.

The gun really doesn't look much like Barbarella's hand-rifle thingy to me. Costume somewhat like.

I wonder what a "Space Barbarian" would really look/dress like?

Silver Crusade

Lord Fyre wrote:

I wonder what a "Space Barbarian" would really look/dress like?

Frazetta's done a few heroic examples. I'd hunt down the one that really comes to mind now if I wasn't at work.

Although Firefly's Reavers could work for your nastier examples...

Back to the matter of Amiri's weaponry size, I'd kind of expect her to be backing a BFG 9000 or a ship-mounted railgun. :D

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