Coridan's page

Epic Meepo wrote:

Or have we already had a mega-dungeon Adventure Path?

*camera pans out to show the River Kingdoms, then Golarion, then the entire Material Plane, all sitting on the floor of a dead-end room in a cosmic mega-dungeon* :P

More seriously, I'd be curious to see how Paizo would break a single, continuous mega-dungeon down into six clear-cut modules without resorting to some serious railroading.

They'd probably detail a certain amount of levels, perhaps 2-3, in addition to any sublevels, per volume. Theoretically the PCs might find they're way down to the lower levels before the next volume comes out, but since lower levels are more dangerous...

Each book could be a sandbox in and of itself, with defeating the final boss of the book unlocking the next area, like pretty much every dungeon based game of all time =p

I'm more curious to see Viperwall, or perhaps something new in Casmaron?

James Jacobs wrote:

I suspect I might have ruled wrong on how reach works, but it makes logical sense to me.

Have a PC charge down a diagonal corridor with a reach weapon. Claim they can never hit with it in those confines?

It doesn't make sense and it a fault of the square based system that treats diagonals different than full faces.

3.5 expressly wrote this out to avoid this annoyance that 3.0 had from some of its more literal readers.

Personally I suggest that you work with hex maps and be done with it, but if you stick with squares then I would allow 2 diagonals to be BOTH 10' and 15' distance as far as being able to reach into that square.

It makes logical sense to me,

James

Again, 2 squares diagonal only counts as such after you leave the second square, not in regards to reaching the second square. This applies to reach weapons and ranged attacks equally. Look at the damned pictures in the 3.5 DMG. PFRPG didn't explicitly change this (they just seemed to forget to mention it)

I'd like to point out that it's not 15 feet until you move diagonally again.

If you move three squares away diagonally you've used up 15 feet of movement.

If you move two squares diagonally and then one square up, also 15 feet. Each diagonal is technically 7.5 feet, but rounded off for simplicity.

And if you look at the reach chart on page 308 of the 3.5 DMG you can easily see the threatened squares of a reach weapon. Shame these charts didn't get into the PFRPG.

So to continue with rampant speculations what do people think will be the first AP for 2012? I like the Worldwound idea.

I've been fighting for a Mendev/Worldwould based mass battle AP ala something out of the Heroes of Battle supplement for a while now. Would love to see it Feb 2012. The mass combat rules in Kingmaker were a good start but definitely need to be expanded on in either a full article or even a companion book or something.

Especially I like from the Heroes of Battle the idea of running a mass battle as a dungeon rather than as a single encounter. A medieval battle is generally a rather long event with plenty of opportunity for small player group sized encounters within it all aiding the greater battle.

Coridan wrote:

I just hope Jade Regent isn't going to be "Start in the Inner Sea and cross the crown of the world, eventually getting to the asian stuff in book 4 or so"

I want to dive right in.

Prepare for disappointment then. Because that's exactly the basic plotline for Jade Regent. There's a LOT more going on than just that, and there'll absolutely be Asian elements in all six adventures, but the plot is pretty much... ** spoiler omitted **

This way, we create all sorts of links between the Inner Sea and Tian Xia, and get to see not only how Inner Sea folks work in Tian Xia, but how Tian Xia folks work in the Inner Sea region.

This will be a bit disappointment as it'll discourage the creation of Tian characters, considering there's gonna be a fancy new book with all types of new Tian flavored crunch to explore it's a shame the players will have less opportunity to explore it.

In reply to the posts above me, certain classes do NOT fit into an asian setting. Paladin is not a good cover for the Samurai (although a few class feature changes to the Cavalier could probably cover it). The ninja could conceivably be done as a rogue PrC but would probably fit better as a core class as would Shugenja. Yamabushi and Sohei could easily be PrCs.

I just hope Jade Regent isn't going to be "Start in the Inner Sea and cross the crown of the world, eventually getting to the asian stuff in book 4 or so"

I want to dive right in.

Could we please switch from packing peanuts to air pouches in boxed shipments? I don't mind spending an extra 25 cents a shipment to be done with these damn things.

I don't know if this was said already because there's 5 pages of too long here but I've felt there's never really been a "brawler" class.

Not a kung fu master monk with ki. Just a big tough guy who pummels people. Fighter and Barbarian can't really accomplish this without the monk's unarmed damage increase. A monk/barbarian is what we're currently doing in our Savage Tide PFRPG game, but that's not legit since technically you can't multiclass monk/barbarian due to alignment restrictions.

Apparently I'm supposed to deliver cookies to this thread? *leaves cookies for Coridan*

I predicted this too, I am a true oracle! *om nom nom*

richard develyn wrote:

If there are enough people who feel like I do, then maybe Paizo could provide some help so that we can run AP based campaigns which are more in keeping with this sort of level progression.

I mention Pathfinder Society level progression and level 12 top out because it suggests where there could be some compatibility / consistency with other Pathfinder products.

Richard

I'm always looking for feedback on our Adventure Paths. At this point, after doing nearly ten of them, I feel we've dialed in a fair amount of things like advancement speed—some folks might still find them too short and others too long, but for the most part I feel that the APs are in a pretty comfortable and efficient middle zone.

We've had FAR too much interest in APs that go to higher level and far too many complaints when they don't to really consider only going to 12th level in an AP.

As for how to extend them... the best bet is to use the Slow XP advancement track and then use additional adventures to expand each chapter of the AP. The majority of our Adventure Paths are actually built to handle the insertion of additional adventure and stuff pretty well; we try to limit the "cliffhanger style" endings since the between-adventures gaps are a perfect place to add in an additional module or two.

Seven Swords of Sin fits in nicely with Rise of the Runelords, and Clash of the Kingslayers fits in beautifully between CotCT 3 and 4

nightflier wrote:

James, in theory, just for conversation's sake, if you ever get the opportunity to get back under your control the work that you did for Dragon and Dungeon, would you include Grazzt, Malcanteth and the rest in Golarion?

The likelihood of WotC releasing demon lords to my total control is pretty much zero.

And if they did... I'd still probably not grandfather them in to Golarion. We've already got demon lords in established roles that those lords filled, and I'm not interested in abandoning what we've done with Golarion's demon lords really.

And furthermore, a lot of what makes Graz'zt and Malcanthet and the other closed content demon lords cool is not their role in the Abyss (we can already duplicate that, and have), but how they interact with the REST of D&D canon and D&D history and tradition. Taken out of context on their own, they lose a lot of their cool. Graz'zt without Iggwilv is lame, as is Malcanthet without Maure Castle.

So... to put it another way, WotC would more or less have to turn over ALL of their intellectual property as regards D&D before I'd even START to think about grandfathering those demons in, and even then I'd probably not, because Nocticula and Socothbenoth and Shax and Sifkesh and all the rest were in Golarion first.

I miss Graz'zt most of all. I hope there's gonna be a sexy boy-toy dominating demon lord in Golarion =p

Scipion del Ferro wrote:

Can multiple swarms affect the same character?

I ask because if the dErGHodaEMoN manages to summon another one and they both cast creeping doom and insect plague. That will be 16 swarms in a 10ft wide hallway attacking 4 PCs flanked by the two 10ft wide demon.

With 16 saving throws might see the paladin fail one!

edit: C&P out of the PDF is awesome on a mac!

Multiple swarms can't affect one creature more than once, unless the creature's space is so big that multiple swarms can get on him. Basically... a square occupied by a swarm cannot be occupied by a second swarm. Swarms don't "stack."

What if the two swarms are fighting each other as well?

I have some announcements:

The next AP after "Serpent's Skull" will be "Carrion Crown" set in Ustalav and will feature the Whispering Way and all the classic horror monsters. Authors for the series include Wes Schneider, Jason Bulmahn, Tim Hitchcock, Greg A Vaughan, and Michael Kortes. Wes will also be writing all the Pathfinder's Journal fiction in the series.

I Called It.

I always preferred SR as more of an active act of resistance, like flinching/tensing up when the dentist sticks a needle in your mouth; as opposed to a forcefield that stops magic.

Ravenmantle wrote:

Just one sample haunt (bleeding walls) and the rules to create your own haunts. No new traps.

Yeah... I had a few more sample haunts in there but the format of that chapter kept us from being able to do more than one sample haunt.

Of course, that just tempts me to do a big book of haunts and traps and hazards...

Would be cool as a companion book, I know those are supposed to be Player oriented, so just throw in a Trapmaking PrC and a Haunter PrC =p

Whenever we run a 3.5 game using Pathfinder rules such as RotR or CotCT we just use the 3.5 xp track.

I've always felt the best RP-heavy adventures are the player driven ones. Find some hooks in your PC's backgrounds and reel them in.

Someone has to say it.

MAKE MY MONSTER GROW!!!

I prefer the original Bandora of course.

The Bandora Song!

A lot of the Dominion War stuff produced some of the best sci-fi material of all time.

I'd like to point out in particular:

Paradise Lost/Homefront
In the Pale Moonlight
Inter Arma Enem Silent Leges (probably did that wrong but it was something like that)
The Siege of AR-558 (with Bill Mumy!)

And those were interspersed with some awesome light-hearted episodes of which TNG had very few (mostly Q episodes), TOS had one (Trouble With Tribbles) and the only Voyager one I can think of is Message in a Bottle.

DS9 however had

Trials and Tribbleations
Badda-Bing Badda-Bang
One Little Ship
Take Me Out to the Holosuite
Profit and Lace
Who Mourns for Morn?
The Magnificent Ferengi
and of course
Little Green Men.

The broke it up in a way that really paced the show well. I'll admit when I was first watching it on TV as a teenager and only catching a few episodes here and there I didn't really get into it. When it came out on DVD however and I watched it beginning to end in many many marathon sessions I was hooked. I had seen the episode where Jadzia dies and it didn't really affect me back then, but I really cried when I saw it again. Her and Julian had become by far my favorite characters.

Edit: OMG I forgot Our Man Bashir, such an awesome episode "You're a spy and you live here? I joined the wrong intelligence agency"

This I do not completely agree with. I thought that the writing was - in general - quite good.

In any event, worse then Voyager or Enterprise ?

That was not Star Trek. That was the 1960s.
"Ethnocentrism" was the norm. Yes, it really was a "White Man's World" in those days.

Coridan wrote:

TOS was a bunch of random sci-fi tropes thrown together episode after episode, ...

Actually, most of the elements The Original Series used weren't tropes yet.

That is how Television was done before the 1990s. Shows were meant to be "episodic." Networks did not want to be resticted on the order that the series had to be shown in.

Film in any other manner, the series would not have been bought, and there would be no Star Trek of any kind.

I do believe I started by saying

Don't get me wrong, for its time it was a great show, and it certainly broke a whole lot of ground, but the things that it spawned are far greater than the show itself was.

Voyager and Enterprise I would put on roughly the same level as TOS if comparing them side by side as shows without the time gap as a factor. They both had a few gem episodes but overall were rather boring.

And there were many TOS episodes that were simply a pulp story or book with the Star Trek skin slapped on top. You don't get so much of that in TNG/DS9.

Well it worked, I was frothing... heh.

I don't think every detail was plotted out, of course. I'm a fanboy, just not the rabid variety. There were definitely some unexpected things that shook up the plan... Talia's actor quitting the show, the show getting cancelled then saved, the switching out of the first captain (I liked the second captain much more, myself). I absolutely hated the fifth season of the show, and the spinoff Technomancer show was hideous.

Alright, moving away from B5... Anyone been watching Fringe or Warehouse 13? I haven't seen them yet, but I'm interested...

Tried watching the first episode of Fringe, it just didn't click with me. Neither did Lost for that matter. Heroes on the other hand has me hooked, though sometimes it gets on my nerves (Lyle couldn't make thanksgiving dinner because he had school!?)

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

He's an artist with a blade, what can I say?

I am!

Cosmo, keeping the Barber-Surgeon's guild alive!

I disagree.

It may be a generational thing, but IMHO The Original Series was the best.

There were stretches where I felt that DS9 dragged.

Which was about every episode of TOS. Don't get me wrong, for its time it was a great show, and it certainly broke a whole lot of ground, but the things that it spawned are far greater than the show itself was. The Original Series was plagued by awful writing and trite storylines (many of which were lifted from somewhere else). It was all crazy anomalies and such terrible ethnocentrism that it shows why military captains generally shouldn't be in charge of making first contact with a new nation or culture.

TOS was a bunch of random sci-fi tropes thrown together episode after episode, DS9 was a story beginning to end, and the long term development of the characters (especially Dukat, Garak, Kira, Damar, Bashir and Nog) brought an amount of depth to the show TOS never even attempted to achieve.

delabarre wrote:

Matthew Morris wrote:

You really want your head to explode? Did the events in First Contact and in Enterprise with the borg actually happen in this timeline? If they didn't, then did Cochran make it to warp on his own?

Sounds like the Star Trek version of the Chewbacca Defense.

Well, arguably since Old Spock and Nero and his en both existed after the Kelvin incident it means that what happened in the new timeline has not affected what happened in Star Trek Prime. Therefore yes the events of First Contact still occurred. Otherwise the old timeline would have been erased, Nero's crew would have ceased to exist which means he didn't destroy the Kelvin which means the old time line still exists, which means he did destroy the Kelvin which...BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Begins picking brain bits off the screen.

My theory is that Cochrane either attacks the Vulcans or doesn't in the two timelines. Well the difference between the two timelines is the Enterprise and the Borg getting involved. Before the Enterprise crew talked to Zefram he was in it for the money. They show up and start filling his head with things about the Federation and make sure basically he doesn't kill the Vulcans, thus preserving and creating their own timeline at the same time.

And Sisko/DS9 best Star Trek there is. The whole show beginning to end was an operatic masterpiece.

I have seven players and when I'm not completely throwing out books from the series and using stuff as written I tend to max the HP and add an extra baddy in an encounter where it makes sense (like an extra sinspawn or something)

The Runelords have been in stasis for over 10,000 years. I liken it to the Wheel of Time series where Rand Al'Thor confronts two of the forsaken at the end of the first book and prevails. In fact, my Runelords have quite a bit in common with the Forsaken in terms of how they act amongst each other and involve themselves in world affairs.

The most powerful Runelord will be Pride who will be a CR17 iirc. The final boss, Karzoug, has been replaced with Xin II

Update on my game:

We finished Chapter 1 (Wrath) last night. I dropped the third level of Sandpoint since they waited in ambush for Nualia to come to the chapel (they knew she was going to be performing her ceremony on Father Zantius that night).

The final battle had them vs Alaznist (as a level 7 Evoker) on top of a step pyramid. She had combat reflexes and had a fun time of tripping everyone who came up the pyramid towards her and sending them tumbling down. It was a tough battle for 7 PCs and just the perfect amount of challenge. I'll post her stats up if anyone wants.

I decided to throw book 2 out the window also. I wanted to focus far more on Lust than the more horror-aspects of Skinsaw Murders. Also the PCs had a ton of loot and money and the burning desire to go to the city to shop.

So I've moved Foxglove Manor to Magnimar, a city in the throes of an extended Mardi Gras-esque celebration. The city's officials, in a failing attempt to end the party, has outlawed prostitution. It's not working. Mothers, daughters, even the local blacksmith have forsworn their trade to ply the world's oldest profession. Hidden amongst these new prostitutes are the sinspawn of Lust. They are a weaker version of succubi and are draining the life of their johns.

Aldern has invited the PCs (including his love interest) to stay at his home while they are in the city, unbeknownst to them the manor is sitting right on top of the Runewell of Lust. Eventually they'll figure it out, deactivate the Runewell and track down Sorshen to the Sunken Queen where she is hiding. I hope to introduce Ileosa there as one of Sorshen's consorts that the PCs will free from Sorshen for a nice tie-in.

I already called asian themed stuff a while back saying that Tian Xia adventure path would launch alongside at GenCon 11

Dang... had an idea realized you couldn't really set it physically on the table though...

Any idea how you want the lust and temptation to come into play or do you just want the theme?
(lol, you could always just get one of the rubix cubes with pictures from playboy on the sides... kidding of course)

Just the theme, and feel free to throw out your idea, maybe I can adapt it somehow

Coridan wrote:

I need a puzzle for an upcoming game session. Preferably something that fits the theme of Lust and temptation. It'd be cool if it was a physical puzzle that I could put out on the table for them. I've already thrown Tower of Hanoi at them (with 1 damage per move =p) so need something else.

How mature is your group?

Very. We are all veterans and have been able to do some pretty dark WoD a Cthulu games. We like our D&D to be a bit gritty.

I need a puzzle for an upcoming game session. Preferably something that fits the theme of Lust and temptation. It'd be cool if it was a physical puzzle that I could put out on the table for them. I've already thrown Tower of Hanoi at them (with 1 damage per move =p) so need something else.

Part of the problem here is that the folks who worked on, wrote, and developed the Kingmaker Adventure Path are NOT the same folks who worked on, developed, and wrote the Guide to the River Kingdoms. There's SOME crossover, and I did my best as Creative Director to make sure that both products have good crossover... but the match isn't as perfect as I wanted.

...

I always thought when doing in-depth maps you would just take the larger map, blow up that section and hand it to the artist as a guide.

This game feels like Fallout 3 as an adventure path.

Which is AWESOME.

Not every AP should be like this of course, but once every 2-3 years it'll be sweet. Would love to see an urban one like this one day maybe set in Absalom.

February 2011, the AP after Serpent's Skull is gonna be a Ravenlofty thing in Ustalav.

I'm calling it.

Edit: I'm also calling Tian Xia in Aug 2011.

For what it's worth, I called the PF RPG pretty much right when 4E was announced. =p

I saw the title and was excited hoping there'd finally be cat people in Golarion. I am disappointed lol

and probably that he's one of the four ascended gods, for example.

That's three ascended gods sire.

Answer: Yes.

The answer to "How consistent must I be?" is always "Enough to satisfy the players."

If you never run a non-ad-libbed game in your entire career as GM, that is fine so long as the players (and you) are having fun.

I myself am obsessed with consistency, to the point where it can actually interfere with the game. But it makes me happy. If you're more able to roll with it, I'm sure that will help you and your players have fun.

I'm the same way, and I was determined to get in on the next big campaign setting after trying Forgotten Realms. I wanted to be in on the ground floor so I can keep up with the metaplot as it came out. I missed out on Eberron, but it seems that was providence as I love Golarion so much more (And PFRPG over 4E waaaay more)

I touched on this in my earlier post, but I have a question:

How are you going to make the fights with each runelord memorable?

Haven't gotten them all yet but

Alaznist will be inside Thistletop, her fight will be memorable more for dialogue with the PCs than for the location which will essentially be a large chamber with a throne on top of a pyramid of steps.

Sorshen will be still trapped in her sealing chambers as well, a brothel has been built atop it and the players will have to get through a Dusk till Dawn like event before she shows herself.

Karzoug will be fought on a sinking riverboat casino.

I'm looking forward to see what sin-related traits you came up with. BTW, how are you introducing the campaign to your players?

They know it's called Rise of the Runelords and has to do with the Seven Deadly Sins, they also know I'm modifying it heavily.

Here's the traits so far:

Half Elf Paladin - Pride
Once per round as a free action, issue an order to a fellow PC, if they follow the order before your next turn, you gain +2 to d20 rolls till the end of your next turn. An order must involve the player performing something specific (wizard, use your ray of enfeeblement on the ogre! is ok, fighter attack the enemies! is not)

Halfling Oracle - Gluttony
Whenever you drink a potion, increase its caster level by 1

Wizard - Greed
You get Detect Coins as a 0th level spell (like detect evil, for money!)

Gnome Ranger - Wrath
+4 bonus to confirm critical hits against favored enemies. Stacks with critical focus.

Bard - Lust
You gain Attraction (the psionic power) as a 1/day Spell Like Ability that uses the bard level as caster level (assuming max power points pumped in basically)

Unknown caster type - Sloth
You gain a +2 to d20 rolls till the beginning of your next turn if you take only one action (move or standard) for your turn.

Spellthief - Envy
Not sure on this one yet

New question: will they ship together or seperately? Might make a HUGE difference having to pay extra tax or not!

I am not Vic, but...

One is releasing the beginning of the month, one at the end of the month. If you are set to ship as each AP volume comes out, two shipments, if set to ship once per month, one shipment. That's my unofficial assumption.

Wait... 2 installations of this AP in ONE month? Sweetness!

Pathfinder's Bullywugs also sound promising...

Well, that's only because they're behind schedule. The Spring AP is generally supposed to come out in February, the Summer in August. They have to get caught up to have Serpent's Skull come out for Gencon.

Maybe the Effigy rules from Complete Arcane would work? Not sure as I haven't looked too much into them.

Additionally, each Runelord will have a specific champion, who bears a toned down sin weapon from the module: 'Seven Swords of Sin.' These individuals will be paragons of that particular sin

While most of my Runelords have the very champions you mentioned (more of a prime agent than a champion though for me) I did debate adding in the Seven Swords of Sin, but decided to ditch them in favor of the players making new weapons of Sin each tied to one player one sin at the Runeforge, much like the old Runelords had their specific weapon these would be the weapons of the players should they take up Xin's offer.

Also I'm giving each player a free campaign trait tying them to a sin in my next runthrough (starting soon™) though they won't know it. Every use of the trait will give them a tick next to that sin. I'll post them as soon as I'm finished, still need one for Sloth, Envy and Lust, but those guys need to make their characters and they are designed to be useful for the specific character.

Ultradan wrote:

Cesare wrote:

Did you keep Foxglove Manor (IMO that's the best part of the AP)

I was dreading this adventure before we played it... It turns out that my group LOVED the investigation part at the beginning. We all thought it was a pretty refreshing turn of events (...that almost had nothing to do with melee). We also loved the gruesome aspects and creepy mood of the adventure.

We want MORE actually!

Ultradan

Maybe you can change the parameters of the investigation. Instead of Aldern committing heinous murders against greedy individuals, you can have him murder prostitutes; he can be the Sandpoint "Jack the Ripper."

All clues of course lead to the haunted Foxglove Manor. I find that the sin of lust fits best with the crimes of the Foxglove family.

I had him be a rapist on top of being a murderer (my group is cool with that sort of stuff) and he was magnetically attracted to acts of lust. Not the prostitute so much as her customer, or Ven Vinder's daughter and her partner whom he caught in the act - bloodily stopped them from escaping, raped, then murdered them.

Hey Coridan,

I'm really digging what you have done with the AP. I'd like to hear more details about what you did with books 2 and 3.

For 2, where did you place the brothel/dungeon? Did you keep Foxglove Manor (IMO that's the best part of the AP)

Also, what kind of stats do these awakening runelords have? It seems as if their long hibernation weakened them severely in your campaign.

I'm tempted to try this out on my next run through of RotRL.

Yes, I kept Foxglove Manor, and really played up Aldern as someone being overcome by Lust. The brothel was in Magnimar, I used a modified version (since we already played through it in CotCT) of Pathfinder 8's hospice to represent the brothel and the ruins/runewell beneath it.

For the Runelords I simply statted up Master Specialist (from Comp Mage) wizards of the appropriate specialty at a level equal to the CR of the encounter they replaced. Don't remember the levels off hand but they replaced:
Wrath = Malfeshnekor
Lust = Xanesha
Greed = Lucretia
Gluttony = The Shoggoth (this one wasn't a wizard anymore... =p)
Sloth = Mokmurian
Envy = that lady at the Runeforge in book 5 (final encounter)
Pride = Most High Ceoptra
Xin II = Karzoug (a Universalist wizard)

An arcane bonded weapon must be wielded in order for it to have effect. This, unfortunately, does mean that two-handed weapons make for relatively poor bonded objects, since they'd limit your spellcasting to things without somatic components. Carrying a 2-handed weapon in one hand isn't "wielding" it... you're just carrying it. You have to have both hands to cast spells with a two-handed weapon bonded object.

A feat or class ability that lets you use a 2H weapon's swings and stabs and motions as your somatic component would be pretty interesting... but nothing in the core currently lets you do that. Your best bet in this case is to only cast Still spells or spells without somatic components.

This is a terrible rule design, and now immediately houseruled away in my home games.

What we don't know is how much revenue was being made by Forgotten Realms during 3.5E, and how much is being made with 4E FR.

For example, WotC has not disclosed how much revenue was made from the last dozen or so 3.5E Forgotten Realms splatbooks/modules, nor have they disclosed how much revenue was coming in from the FR novels before the spellplague.

The only possible sure sign of 4E FR being a complete failure (that I can think of offhand), would be if the 4E Forgotten Realms books ended up in huge quantities in the 5 dollar bargain sections at places like Borders, Barnes & Noble, and other bricks & mortar bookstores. (It could be in piles of as many as a ten or twelve books of the same title).

We could use licensing in other media as an example. At the end of second edition and a good while through third edition Forgotten Realms video games were big (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights) has there even been mention of a 4E video game yet?

Although I don't like what they did with the Spellplague, I have to point out that it is THEIR property and they can do with it whatever they want. If Tolkien had decided that, in Return of the King, he wanted a spaceship to crash into Mt. Doom, he would be allowed to do that. If the Rolling Stones decided they wanted to do an album consisting of nothing but disco music, they can do that. And if George Lucas wants Indiana Jones to investigate extraterrestrials, so be it!*

One of the many reasons to return copyright terms to the original 7 years.

We've been having more problems with the books coming to us misprinted than anything, to be perfectly honest (extra sets of certain pages, and missing others). But the Core book, DMG, and the Bestiary are starting to "crack" in the glue and the covers are starting to wrap. The most frustrating thing is that we treat these books like hallowed relics of a bygone age. Slight exaggeration, but my point, I believe, is made. Perhaps in the future PAIZO could print the books on stainless steel, or perhaps adamantine. ;)

I think it was Life After People that said stone was our best writing implement for long term recordings that we ever developed.

I can't imagine the shipping costs of even a character sheet chiseled in stone.