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I know some of the pics are little, but they still look awful.

Oh, they look worse close up:

I like the Oni, Magma Brute, Howling Hag, & the Immolith. But most of the rest are a giant step backwards. Going to be interesting to see the spin.

Sakurafire wrote:

Also as a suggestion, Game Mastery should bring out Stamps for trees, bushes, etc. I seen some guy many years ago who made them by hand, but they've since worn out from over-usage and he doesn't make them anymore.

Something like this was being advertised in Dungeon a few years ago. Don't remember the name of the company though.

I believe you both are thinking of 'Dungeon Stamps' made by Green Dragon Studio. Yes, its OOP. No, GDS is no longer around- even a defunct eBay Store. Here though, is the gist:

"With Dungeon Stamps, no longer will you have to worry about weak mapping skills or clumsy software interfaces. Stamp out detailed map symbols like doors, walls, and corpses right onto your vinyl game mat.
- No more piles of printed map sheets.
- Do away with confusing, hand drawn symbols.
- Add quality, visual, terrain to your game that doesn't get in the away of your miniatures.
- Best of all, Dungeon Stamp Ink easily wipes off your game mat, clearing the field for the next battle."

There might be 'Noble' website that 'Knight' still carry these.

Hi - do you know of any retailers in Great Britain who sell this product?

Also, it appears that Amazon.co.uk as well as Patriot Games (cool name) and Spirit Games carries GameMastery stuff.

To be fair, I don't doubt that any one of you could self-publish from this point on.

Take it a few steps further. If several of them started working together, collaborated with talented yet affordable artists, and then created a few things for RPGNOW, you'd end up with a fledgling gaming publisher. And not the Lavender Dragon kind.

Steve G.

Which makes me wonder: what is themap trying so desperately to stay away from...?

Heneraxic? This would add to the back story- have the map be semi-sentient and also aware of the dragon. It starts 'jumping' on its own to try and get its citizens to either a new place of relative safety or somewhere that could possibly provide them resources to use against the dragon. Or maybe just the hell away. :P

Speaking of which, 'The Wandering Nation' would be a nice opportunity to bust out the Colossal Red Dragon figure.

-Steve G.

Given that we don't know any more about 4th edition than you do, it's WAY too early to spend much effort thinking about what we *could* do, much less what we *will* do.

I was thinking this is the oliphant in the room, and that there's really only a few possibilities. You have the timetable which is either going to be that 4th Ed comes SOONER or it is going to come LATER. Sooner to me could be as early as this August at GenCon, which will be the con's 40th anniversary. Could '40th' go well with '4th?' Monte Cook's thoughts from 2006 seem to validate this. Or it could be later, such as in April of 2011. Either way, its coming.

The other aspect are the differences; i.e will it play well with 3.5 and the current OGL. Will it be COMPATIBLE and therefore easily converted or will it be INCOMPATIBLE and not worth the time?

So basically the possibilities of a 4th edition D&D are:

1) SOONER & COMPATIBLE
2) SOONER & INCOMPATIBLE
3) LATER & COMPATIBLE
4) LATER & INCOMPATIBLE

Curious as to how people see each of these affecting Pathfinder.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but as someone who is still 'sitting on the fence' about subscribing, thought it important to try-n-learn.

If and when there is a 4th Edition of D&D, will Pathfinder switch over to it or remain 3.5?

Not looking for a promise per se although it'd be nice to know what you guys are thinking of doing when the time comes.

Thanks.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

Chalmers: Laugh it up, you punks, 'cause you and Jan Murray here just cost our town the Olympics.

Bart: Hey, Chalmers, where are you from?

Chalmers: Well, I was born in Queens, went to Ball state, then made the move to Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Uh, why do you ask?

[Bart is about to say something when Skinner Quickly puts his hand over his mouth]

Skinner: Uh, don't worry, sir. I'll teach these children some respect for their town. I'm assigning each of you 20 hours of Community Service.

[the children walk offstage, groaning and moaning]

Ralph: Intercourse?

Chalmers: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my vacation at Lake Titicaca.

[to Bart] Let's see you make a joke out of that, Mr. Smart guy.

[Bart looks at Skinner to see if he can, and Skinner waves his hands "no"]

BUMP

Any suggestions as to what should be included in the emailed sample?

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

some of those details...

We're taking this opportunity to move away from the magazine business because it's just plain terrible to be in. It's one thing to continue publishing an already successful magazine with awesome name recognition, great circulation, and advertisers lined up to buy pages, but it's quite another to launch a new magazine.

We tried it twice, just a few years ago, with two very different magazines: Undefeated and Amazing Stories. And what we learned from both was that we'd have needed to dig a seven-digit hole in our bank account before we'd start seeing a decent return on them.

Many have suggested we should just replace Dragon with a clone, but it just doesn't work that way. "Manny's Cigar and Magazine Depot" carries Dragon because he's sold Dragon for decades. He's never heard of this new "Flagon magazine" but he's pretty sure he's never sold a copy. Should he buy it? Well, how much does it sell? Zero copies? Manny can't afford the risk right now. Come back when it sells tens of thousands per month. (Chicken, meet egg.)

And the big guys? You have to buy your spot on those stands. And you have to ship them more copies than they can possibly sell, and what they don't sell, they destroy, and you don't get paid for. If you start to sell more copies, they order more, so they can have some to destroy. They adjust their buying levels to ensure thay they're destroying more than they're selling—because if they don't have too many, they can't sell more.

And when you do sell copies, that money goes into what the magazine distribution business calls a "reserve against returns," which is held by our circulation company. Stores have the better part of a year to report their unsold issues, for which they get their money back, so until that time is up, the circulation people keep most of the money. (Actually, they parcel it out based on historical percentages, so it trickles in throughout the year, but the point is, you don't really know how much you've made until the issue has been off the stands for a...

The rest of it is here towards the bottom. Its an interesting read into how magazines are sold.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

I just want to tell everyone that Pathfinder is NOT a magazine. So let's just get magazines out of our collective vocabulary {snip}

Fair enough, but what would they like it to be called? A journal? Supplemant? Best Thing EVAR?

I did read that Pathfinder is the "premier outlet for your next fantasy roleplaying campaign," but I'm not sure we're supposed to go around and call it an 'outlet.'

Tell us what it is and we'll call it that. :)

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

Thanks man. daysoftheking (aka Jason D.) did contact me and explained how his support unit is either "ridiculously busy or incredibly dead."
He went on to say, "When we find time to play, we are dedicated and often stay up way too late, but its worth it to get away from here once in a while." To which I can only imagine.

Anywho, one of Jason's other hats is Games Operations Director meaning that he runs three games, "on alternating nights, every other week (mission allowing, of course)." Whats really cool to me is that it all begans with just one group, but then other soldiers showed up, became interested, and wanted to play. Apparently the group now has 15 characters run by 12 players.

We'll be doing the various portraits over the next few months and would appreciate a place to post our progress- our own web site is having issues with the Galleries. If there's room somewhere on the Paizo site, that'd be great. Maybe get some more people involved and possibly send a 'Gaming Care Package' ala Arnold bringing weights to the troops in the last Gulf War.

Thanks.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

{thinks to self} "What Greyhawk Desparately needs...Waldorf? {cymbal crash}

Yes, 'Pimp My Campaign' and the 'Extreme Makeover' jokes were better. But my joke has the added +1 bonus of an old reference. Boo-yah.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

I am sitting in Iraq right now, and D&D is one of the few ways my gaming group and I have to escape this place.

Hey- I have a good buddy over in Afghanistan and he would no doubt love to be gaming off-duty. As for us, we'd like to offer you & your group free custom character portraits of your guys to help keep the free time fun. Please contact us for details.

Thank you.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

Actually, not being able to use older settings might be a blessing in disguise for the Paisans. Now they can not only decide for themselves what to create but they'll actually have control over their creations. So there is a possible silver lining here, albeit one reached via the rollar coaster ride of a new venture. I'm sure its an exciting/nervous time at Paizo, but as John Kennedy once said, "When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity."

Seize this opportunity guys, and go balls to the wall with it.

Steve G.
Project Manager,AvatarArt

Not a bad thing to hold up, but if the magazine is scheduled to ship out already early Summer, I wonder if its already been sent to the printers or at least laid-out.

I had a few other good ideas for a tribute myself, I'm just not sure there's still time to include any last-minute additions.

But please correct me if I'm wrong! I've got a good one.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

Material that encourages active roleplaying. Maybe its just me, but it seems like 95% of the PHB is for the roll-playing aspect of the game. You get a bit of stuff to work with under the description of each race, and alignment helps- when its not creating arguments. Umm...then there's height, weight and go off of. Oh yeah, religion/gods. Hmm. Well, Unearthed Arcana allows Flaws & Traits! And I'm sure the PHB II has something too!! :P

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but by & large, most of the core books are filled with pages of what essentially are dice modifiers for various actions.

I'd like to see things that really 'breathe life' into this world we're reading about. Give the players that which they can draw upon for truly better roleplaying and give the GM the resources to have their players interact with a true world.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

That's pretty good—we should totally hire that guy!

a 100-page advertising-free perfectbound full-color book.

I think it would help people comprehend the 'shift' if a sloganish sort of thing was very OAH- Obvious As Hell. Playing off what Mr. Schneider wrote:

I know the announcement has "96-page, perfect-bound, full-color softcover Adventure Path book printed on high-quality paper that releases in a monthly volume," but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Maybe have a contest to design the best Pathfinder ad and/or slogan with the winners earning Lifetime subscriptions will spark some interest while creating something memorable to spread the word.

Oh, and the guy who came up with the contest idea should get a Lifetime subscription too. ;)

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

We are always open to new artists joining our stable. Please feel free to send JPEGs of your recent work

Hi Sean; most artists would no doubt love to join in on Pathfinder, particularly since it could be at the early stages. Any suggestions as to what should be included in the emailed sample? Some publishers want to see a monster, a woman, and a building. Others focus on particular parts, such as an illustration that proves you can do say, 'hands.' And I've also seen requests for sending several styles, to demonstrate proficiency in various mediums.

Any tips on those submissions for giving you an idea of an artist's 'chops' would be helpful.

Thanks Sean!

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

I think some folks aren't quite realizing the paradigm shift here. Try looking at it this way:

How much would you expect to pay for a 100-page full-color high-quality roleplaying book from any other publisher?

Pathfinder is also meant to last. We know many roleplayers are both collectors and bibliophiles, so each volume is built to not only look amazing, but to keep looking amazing the fifth time you've run the adventure 10 years from now. Things like paper and cover quality aside, at 96 pages, full color, with writing and art by the best in gaming, and with a free PDF, potentially delivered to your door, and for all less than $20 bucks (much less if you transition your Dragon and Dungeon subscription), it starts sounding pretty fair.

Keep in mind, Pathfinder is not a magazine. This isn't just some PR or branding screed we're trying to feed you, it's true. It won't look like a magazine and it won't feel like one. It's going to feel like a substantial medical journal or the larger soft-cover products put out by other gaming companies, which usually retail around $25 bucks (and don't come with PDFs or show up at your house). The only thing that makes it like a periodical at all is that we're masochists and we're going to be doing one of these every bloody month.

I would hammer these points home until the shift is understood by Joe Gamer. Or until it hits the fan. ;)

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

but that boat has just about sailed

...to the Isle of Dread no doubt. :)

Seriously, gaming stuff is like anything else you buy: you get what you pay for.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

There's some further info about the 'fluff' as they call it here. Also found this:
Dragons In 40k - Page 2 - Librarium OnlineOk guys! Sorry i haven't posted here in a while! Well.... I've thought up some fluff (At the spur of the moment) and have decided to.
www.librarium-online.com/forums/rules-development/15547-dragons-40k-2.html

..but you have to register to see it.

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

Nickie had a real good time with dem Kobolds MUUHAAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAAH!

So they're related toTucker's Kobolds eh? :)

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

Met Elmore at MegaCon in Orlando a few years back--nice guy.

I concurr completely. For me, it was '06 GenCon and he had a booth with several staff; one to run the register, one to get the prints, and one as a personal aid. He eating McDonald's and graciously took the time to look through our portfolio. (and despite the secret sauce he made sure to be quite careful while doing so) But what was really moving was that he actually LOOKED-LOOKED. Went through every page, some twice. Ended up signing one of our pieces with a few words of encouragement that still serve as an inspiration.

All in all, a classy guy.

I was admittedly too 'star struck' to take a pic, but if I can figure out how to post an image on these boards (and its allowed) I'll show off what his autograph.

He's the best choice to do the final cover. Well, 2nd best if you count us. ;)

Steve G.
Project Manager, AvatarArt

p.s. ended up buying a print of the fighter vs. red dragon which graced the cover of the boxed the Basic Set, to which he made an 'old school' comment. lol