Pathfinder and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Tup

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Free RPG Day 2016 has come and gone, and if you went to your friendly local game store or happened to stop by the ACG area at Origins, you got up close and personal with the Prince of Darkness! The Bale-flame of Naughtiness! The Dragon-Sired Master of Really Massive Bonfires! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you TUP THE TERRIBLE!


Master of stick-men! Rider of sheep!

As you can see, our friend Tup is a pyromaniac. He's got a sorcerer-style spell blast (but he's a goblin, so it's expensive). And if he uses a spell to trigger that blast, he gets a random spell from the box in return. In play, this results in a somewhat... erratic spellcaster, and with a hand size of 6, Tup tends to take it on the chin.

He's also surprisingly personable, for a goblin. When he was exiled from Thistletop, Tup wandered the countryside, stealing random clothes off farmhouse clotheslines to ward off the cold. He now tells people that he's a really short leper, and for some reason people buy it. Probably because he's so helpful. He really wants to help you. For me, Tup will forever be played by Mike Selinker, eagerly asking every time I attempt a check if he can help. I said yes once, and he grinned wider than I've ever seen him grin. Then he wiped out my hand.

But I did succeed at the check, so... all's well?

Tup has a role card showcasing two of his many ceremonial titles, as well as a cohort: his trusty riding sheep Deliverance. And by "trusty" I mean "startled by just about anything and prone to tactical withdrawal."


Make sure to read the role flavor text.

Tup the Bale-flame is all about the burning. Want help? He'll burn you. If he needs help, he'll burn himself. You got fire stuff? When you're done with it, he can still use it. Tup's a conservationist arsonist. There are even options for players who want to take Tup in a friendlier direction: he can take feats to reduce Fire damage dealt to himself and to others. The design team might look down its nose at you a little bit—after all, goblins are meant to live gloriously short lives and meet gloriously brutal ends—but we're a full-service organization.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game subscribers will be getting Tup for free (along with a fistful of other promo cards!) with the first Mummy's Mask shipment in October. Not an ACG subscriber, or just can't wait? He'll also be available for purchase starting July 1 right here at paizo.com, and we'll be bringing him to Gen Con as well.

I hope you've enjoyed this taste of Tup, because July might as well be named Goblin Month! Next week, you'll get a preview of one of the two July Adventure Card Game Class Deck releases: the Goblins Fight! Deck.

Until next time, Pathfinders!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

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Tags: Goblins Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
Grand Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

My sub cannot come soon enough.

Adventure Card Game Designer

7 people marked this as a favorite.

Oh, if only we'd used the term "Conservarsonist."


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Wow... That Hand Size progression is wild!


I think it should be Turrible.

Adventure Card Game Designer

We say it like this.


Only concern would be his second power potentially allowing you to cycle through spells in the box until you get one you'd like (<3 Augury/Scrying). I suppose you'd at least want to make sure to shuffle the box supply after banishing...


He's a sorcerer? I don't know much about the card game.

Shadow Lodge

No, he's a pyromaniac. Duh.


RhinoKneel wrote:
Only concern would be his second power potentially allowing you to cycle through spells in the box until you get one you'd like (<3 Augury/Scrying). I suppose you'd at least want to make sure to shuffle the box supply after banishing...

Plus it only happens when he uses the first power (or something else that banishes spells not for their power). So he only does it on combat checks mostly.


We are currently using him in Ruelords along with Wu Shen, Radillo and Ramexes. His banish power means he's been fantastic and getting hold of spells for the other two casters. Radillo in particular now has all the spells she wanted at this point in the campaign.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

The Golux wrote:
He's a sorcerer? I don't know much about the card game.

In his RPG form, Tup is a multiclassed Sorcerer/Bard. That's hard to represent with the way that classes are listed in the card game, and Paizo has chosen non-standard class names for their other promo goblin characters, so they went the same direction with Tup, making up a "Pyromaniac" class for him. :)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

cartmanbeck wrote:
...Paizo has chosen non-standard class names for their other promo goblin characters...

Yup. While (for example) Poog is a cleric in the RPG, in PACG, he wants to be supported by the Goblins Burn! deck, not the Cleric deck.


Tup reminds me of Vivi from Final Fantasy IX. Like it!

Adventure Card Game Designer

<3 Vivi.

Grand Lodge

Vic Wertz wrote:
cartmanbeck wrote:
...Paizo has chosen non-standard class names for their other promo goblin characters...
Yup. While (for example) Poog is a cleric in the RPG, in PACG, he wants to be supported by the Goblins Burn! deck, not the Cleric deck.

And Mogmurch is no Damiel, right Vic?

Silver Crusade

I couldn't find the answer to this yet, but any plans on making the goblin promos Society legal?

Silver Crusade

Tanis indicated they would be legal to play with the Goblins Fight! and Goblins Burn! Class decks in this blog post.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

His second power will kick in as well if he's at a location that require a banish to close, so that's nice as well.

Seems to me that if he has an attack spell, he should just use it normally. But if he acquires a Divine spell, he should probably burn it. With a d4 Wisdom he's unlikely to acquire "good" Divine spells, except by his random pull. He could be useful to purge Basic/Elite spells from the box after adventure 3/5 starts also.

He could be hilarious in Wrath adventure 6 - guess I'll burn this spell to attack, look, I got a Time Stop!

Grand Lodge

Will there be a Tup playmat like there was for Ekkie and Ranzak?

Adventure Card Game Designer

Mike Selinker wrote:
We say it like this.

I was about to post this. Well done.

Adventure Card Game Designer

You can order Tup now.

ORDER TUP NOW.

TUP.

Grand Lodge

Mike Selinker wrote:

You can order Tup now.

ORDER TUP NOW.

TUP.

But I got a Tup on free RPG day AND I'm a PACG Subscriber so I'll ge-YES I WILL ORDER TUP NOW...

Grand Lodge

James McKendrew wrote:
Mike Selinker wrote:

You can order Tup now.

ORDER TUP NOW.

TUP.

But I got a Tup on free RPG day AND I'm a PACG Subscriber so I'll ge-YES I WILL ORDER TUP NOW...

Move along.


Any plans on Tup getting a Pathfinder Battles Mini?

Pathfinder ACG Developer

I can't answer to that, but I can point out that he's got a pawn already, along with several dozen of the other PACG characters.


The pawn isn't available until August technically :)

Grand Lodge

Sharkfist Robot wrote:
Any plans on Tup getting a Pathfinder Battles Mini?

You need to convince Erik Mona that Tup (and Ekkie) need minis.


Theryon Stormrune wrote:
Will there be a Tup playmat like there was for Ekkie and Ranzak?

I'm wondering the same thing! I like to have a playmat for every character on the board! :D


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I want Ak, too!

Grand Lodge

Vic, don't know if anything has changed but is there a Tup playmat in the works?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Not currently.

Grand Lodge

Vic Wertz wrote:
Not currently.

For Martketing's edification, I'd totally buy one.

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