Djoc's page

There's a plan for a Wiki of Golarion. I'm not sure what is the expected content of it, but I guess this referencing tool would/should be part of it.

Pathfinder novels were discussed during yesterday night's chat. Erik asked us what we would like to see in those novels.

Go see my post in "#pathfinder" tread for some more info about what came out of that discussion.

1) None so far.

2) All of them ;p

3)
Sword & Sorcery
Sword & Planet
Lost Worlds Tales
Horror/Gothic Fantasy
"Weird" Fiction
Jungle Tales
Science Fiction
Space Opera

4) Subscription yes.

But even more, combined shipping with monthly PF/Modules, so I get to pay shipping only once a month. I wouldn't mind if the shipping cost was a little higher because you need a bigger box to fit everything. Combined shipping will be the difference between buying directly from you and buying at a local store/amazon.

5) 30% is perfect, I would also accept a lower discount depending on shipping cost/deal.

Well, here's the information I collected. I arrived a bit late and Vic had been there for some time, so someone else will have to do that part if he disclosed any interresting bit of information :)

Many thanks to Vic, James and Erik!!!

3rd Adventure Path
As promised, James Jacobs has given us very interresting information about the third AP, which will be named "Second Darkness" (suggested shorts: SD or 2D). It should start in or near Riddleport for the 2 first chapters, then will possibly move on pretty far away, going into entirely new regions. It's still in early stages of planning though, so locations of the chapters might change. This will most likely be the last AP that is set in Varisia.

The first Chapter of AP3 (PF#13) will be named "Shadow in the Sky". It will be written by JJ himself. It will start for level 1 PCs and he has no idea up to which level range the AP will go.

The Last Rogue mentionned that a Second Darkness hints to a first darkness. JJ said there is indeed a Firt Darkness, but that's secret stuff for now. It is also unclear how much the First Darkness will impact the story of the Second Darkness. JJ said "It's also not necessarilly talking about that "First Darkness," but maybe it is..."

Bits about Riddleport
- Justice in Riddleport is unfair.
- Riddleport is like a cross between Deadwood (from the HBO seires) and Freeport and Lankhmar.
- It is not a place where typicaly "evil" races can stay, though.
- A goblin that comes into Riddleport is most likely to be killed fastest.
- AP3 might or might not unlock Riddleport's riddle...

Races/Monsters of Golarion
Elves
JJ: "For elf skin color, most are of the similar complexion to Merisiel. Of course... starting with "Second Darkness," we'll be seeing a fair amount more elves with much darker skin tones... More like black skin. As in: Second Darkness is going to reveal the role of drow in Golarion. The dark elves have a fair amount going on in the third adventure path. They're far from the only thing going on in there, though. Drow are among my favoritest things in D&D. And by "drow" I mean the drow that were in Vault of the Drow. Thing about drow: there's always a lot of "I HATE DROW" talk on messageboards... yet Every Single Time we put a drow on the cover of one of the magazines... that magazine sold like hotcakes. People like drow. It's a proven fact. Eclavdra = the best drow evar."
Zelligar asked about drow as PCs, and JJ is 99% sure that a drow PC would be a TERRIBLE choice for Second Darkness, though.
JJ: "Drizzt is Forgotten Realms. We won't be going that route with our drow. He's a brilliant character, though. But the concept of angst-ridden drow is so associated with the Forgotten Realms that you can't really do much with it without looking like you're aping that setting."

And then, I have not copied the whole discussion, but here's a comment from JJ when talking about the drow and the underdark of golarion: "Aboleths are the awesomest."

Subraces
JJ: "I'm not sure what we'll be doing with elves or other subraces for demihumans yet. Derro actually have basis in real-world myth, so they should certainly be their own thing. But I'm pretty sure that we aren't gonna have lots of different subraces for elves and halfings and dwarves, all with different modifiers and abilities. That's FR. That's not Golarion." Blazej asked about cultures for demi-humans. JJ: "Humans will be getting a LOT of different ethnicities (all have the same game stats); demihumans, not initially. Maybe eventually."

Dwarves
JJ: "Dwarves themselves are half barrel, half beard. Both of which are filled with dirt and bear. Beer, even. Or both."

Gnomes
Cappadocius asked "What the heck they look like." JJ: "Little people with crazy hair. Pointy hats. Gnomes and Pointy Hats go together like water and Kool-Aid. Big eyes. Round ears. Smirks and giggles. But they're a lot more wiry and thin and lithe than WoW gnomes."

Derro
JJ: "Derro are another one of my favorite bad-guy races. I can pretty much guarantee you that there'll be derro type things happening in Pathfinder before much longer." "Derro are, according to D&D, half-human and half dwarf. In Golarion, they're not; they're something else, I'm pretty sure."

Duergar
JJ: "Duergar... eventually." I can't recall exactly, forgot to copy the discussion, but I think he also mentionned that Duergar would appear somewhere in CotCT (or was it in RotRL?).

Upcomming RotRL chapters' back matter articles
- PF4 was send to printer (or is going to be very soon, can't remember which exactly)
- Therefore, november will probably be the double volume month.
- JJ: "The Keeping the Keep article ended up being a LOT smaller than I thought it would be. There's a lot of cool ideas in there, but it's not a huge meaty expansion thing."
- JJ: "We just got in Sean's Lamashtu article a few days ago. Eva Widermann did the art for it. That one's gonna give some folks nightmares... There'll be a prestige class, as in all of the deity articles. Lamashtu's kind of our catch-all bad-gal goddess. Lamashtu does indeed cause trouble to childbirth and mothers and stuff. There's an AWEEEESOME picture of Lamashtu. Pazuzu and Lamashtu are indeed rivals in Golarion."
- PF3 has a short article about running castles and a long one about a Varisia gazetteer.
- PF4 has an Ecology of the Stone Giants and a Dragons of Golarion article.
- PF5 has the Lamashtu article and a big "Magic of Thassilon" type thing.
- PF6 is gonna have a big multi-page Critical threat style thing for Karzoug and a HUMOUNGOUS adventure. There'll be a 4 page "Mountainclimbing Supplement".
- JJ: "The deity articles will happen twice per adventrue path. Usually in the second from the start and the second from the last. It's a long-term goal to do up all the gods like this. And yes: It's VERY weird to give over deity notes to other authors. Kinda nerve wracking, but with Sean it's awesome all the way."
- JJ: " Back matter articles vary in length from 4 pages to 14 pages so far. [...] 4 page "Mountainclimbing Supplement" [...] that's probably the shortest one we'll do."

Future APs
- Restam Asked for "some cool magical societies and organizations" in the next urban based AP. His dream will come true, as there's several organizations in Curse of the Crimson Throne, for your PCs to join or fight or ignore.

- JJ: "There's an Adventure Path bumping around in my head that's All About why the Kaijitsus had to leave their homeland, though. Eventually that one'll see the ligth of day. That's probably a LONG way off still, though."

- Planning APs: When planning an AP, a few of us at Paizo get together in a room and brainstorm the plot. We work out the basic story, write up the outline, then assign the adventures to the authors we think can handle those parts the best.

Golarion
Travelers
Zohar was wondering, are travellers from there [Minkai] pretty common place? Or would the Chelaxians/Varisians/Shoanti kinda view them as outsiders? JJ: "Travellers from Tian Xia are common enough that most big cities wouldn't freak out if they visited." (Xian Tia is the [asia-like] region where you can find Minkai, where the Kaijitsu family comes from.)

Gazetteer
The Gazetteer will have a little bit more info about the other continents. Not much, though. They're focusing on one to two continents at a time. When asked which one(s) will be the focus for the upcomming Gaz, JJ didn't remember their names. [But now he's back at work, he might be able to give those names? Please?]
Gaz will include information about geography, languages, races, history, all sorts of stuff.

Novels about Golarion
- Blazej asked about other products around Golarion setting, beside APs, Modules and Chronicles. JJ: "There's all sorts of exciting ideas for new products beyond adventures; nothing I can reveal right now, but we'll certainly be moving beyond adventures in time."

- Erik Mona said: "We're all excited about the prospect of Pathfinder Chronicles fiction, though we haven't made any firm plans yet."
- Then he asked about what stories we would like to see. Some answers: History stuff (Thassilon, First Darkness ;p ), stories that don't interfere with the APs or Modules, stories of the Pathfinders organisation.

Planet Stories
Erik: "We WILL publish a "new" novel from a familiar name next year."
(this part is from memory, as I didn't copy this part of the discussion)
There were questions about the success of the line, and it seems that a couple more thousand copies sold would greatly help.
Comments were done by a few (including me) that we were waiting for the subscription.
Personnaly, to represent international customers, I'm not so much waiting for the subscription, as I'm waiting for combined shipping with my monthly PF/Modules, to save on the shipping charges. (I'm also waiting for combined shipping for many other products, like the item cards, Hollow's Last Hope, the TC Module, and Chronicles subscription...)

Go see the poll about Planet Stories here.

Other random informations
- APs are 6-month long for now. [JJ] "Longer APs will probably not happen, since that "locks up" Pathfinder too long and gives readers fewer "starts" to join up. Shorter paths, on the other hand, start to feel too rushed. For now, 6-part campaigns seem to work pretty well. "

- Monster submission through the Open Call. JJ: "Monster submissions are still in a weird spot. We really don't have time to devote to reading through submissions yet, for one thing. Wes and I have been working really long hours lately trying to get Pathfinder caught up to its schedule. And until that's caught up, things like monster submision guidelines and untagged maps for download get to linger in the back."

- So untagged maps will eventualy come, but they're quite low on the priority list.

- Erik said Falcon's Hollow will be visited again.

- Crit Failure deck is in development.

- About the picture in Oct 16th blog entry, comments about the sarcophagus cover for a shield, led to JJ saying "I hope he's got a mummy in his shield that he can throw at his enemies if things get dicey." And then, Rambling Scibe: "Oohh... Big mr half-orc needs his mummy to protect him..."

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Well, if I forgot anything, feel free to add it :D

Wayne Art Makes Nicky Want To Have Dragon-Sex!!!

I'm not sure if the dragon is a he or a she... I don't think it's looking Seoni in the eyes...

Some of the Modules share the Varisia region. Seven Swords of Sin happens in Kaer Maga (on the edge of the cliff South of the Cinderlands) and Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale happens in Bloodsworn Vale, right off the South-East corner of the map of Varisia.

I might be running Seven Swords of Sin between PF#3 and #4, since it also shares the "Runelords" theme.

Wishlists are coming. More info here.

You'll find your answers in this tread.

Especialy Lisa's and Vic's posts towards the end of page one. We just need to be a little more patient.

I'd much rather have some type of nicely printed clear plastic templates.

You could build your own clear plastic templates, with a few clear plastic sheets (those that teachers use on the projector), a permanent marker, a ruler scaled by inches, and scisors. Easy, fast, cheap, and you can make any shape your group desire.

From answers that were given in previous post here or elsewhere:

1- Yes

2- Yes and (Yes)

3- Once subsciption is avaiable, I'll bet my DM's screen there will be combined shipping available for Chronicles too.

Wow, that's incredible work there Lilith!

Thanks to Erik, James, Nick, Jason and Gary (hope I don't forget anybody :s )for droping by and giving us many answers and bits of information about what is comming :D And again for the lightning quick answers to the unanswered questions!

Personaly, I prefer calendars that are easy to follow and that allow me to have important celebrations always happen at the same time.

My calendar has the same 12 months as named in the blog, but each month is exactly 30 days. I add 5 extra days between the quarters, one for each solstice and equinox and one other extra day after the summer solstice. I also add another extra day every fourth year after the winter solstice. Change of the year happens exactly the day of the winter solstice.

Each month contains 3 weeks of 10 days, so I just added 3 more days to the week presented in the blog. I then rearanged the days a bit to fit my taste and have the "days' purposes" spread over each week.

I find it's easier for my players and me to follow, especialy the days of the week, since each month start with the same day of the week. And you have 5-6 definite celebration days that are always holidays, are outside the normal months and mark each change of season.

I just finished reading that module yesterday and found out something interresting in the conclusion: Something about war and giants in the North-West. Since this is the subject of PF#4, I'm just wondering if that module was "planned" as some kind of extra quest to be done between PF#3 and #4?

I was planing to have my players go there at some point anyway, so I'm just wondering if there is a month or two (in Golarion time) between PF#3 and #4?

---

I was not sure at first about including scientific elements, but found out that the mix was perfect. And everything is explained enough so that it could be possible to have scientific elements there and not anywhere else.

One thing I'm going to change is the layout of level 3 of the dungeon. The way it is right now, it seems some rooms would end up being farther South than the edge of the cliff... I'll put rooms 25 and 26 to the South of room 27, and rearange rooms 30 and 31 so they don't overlap with 25-26.

I just got a suscription starting with Issue 2. Will this qualify me to get the PDF?

As far as I know, you should get a free PDF for issue 2 and following issues. For issue 1, you'll have to purchase printed and PDF versions separately, if you want both.

If so, how long does it take for me to get access to the PDF?

As soon as it ships, you get the option added to your Downloads in your Account page.

Q1 - From the Help/FAQ:

"How do preorders work?
Preorder items have been announced by the manufacturer, but are not yet available. If the manufacturer has provided an expected release date, we pass that date on, but it is not a guaranteed ship date.

We do not charge your credit card for preorder items until we ship them to you.

If you order preorder items along with non-preorder items, you can choose whether or not we hold the other items until the preorder arrives, or whether we ship items as they become available.

In the rare circumstance we receive notice from the manufacturer that a preorder product has been cancelled, we will cancel your preorder and let you know. If the manufacturer notifies us that the final product differs substantially from the product as it was initially marketed, we'll let you know, and ask if you'd like to cancel or change your preorder."

Q2 - This is not available for individual purchases now, but it is on the Webmaster/Programmer's to-do list.

But if you subscribe to the Modules Subscription, you will have the options of: 1- having the Modules wait to be shipped with PF or 2- PF wait to be shipped with Modules or 3- wait for neither.

Found out the information in an old blog post. The one about the calendar states it is Absalom Reckoning.

What does "ar" after the year stand for? I'm sorry if I missed the reference elsewhere.

My guess was Absalom Reckoning when I saw that, but it wouldn't hurt to get confirmation.

A few unofficial answers before you get the official ones:

Is it possible to have new orders shipped at the same time as a Pathfinder or Gamemastery subscription? For example if I placed an order today would it be shipped with my next issue of Pathfinder?

Presently no. But I beleive that this is on the Webmaster/programmer's to-do list.

It shows in my history that Pathfinder #1 and #2 as well as Modules D2: Seven Swords of Sin (OGL) Print Edition and U1: Gallery of Evil (OGL) (Print Edtion) are only going to be shipped with Pathfinder #3.

Is this normal?

No idea...

Lastly, I ordered the modules hollows last hope and crown of the kobold king. My account says they shipped which is fine, however, I was under the impression that when these modules were shipped I would be able to download the PDF version of them. Yet the downloads section of my account says I have 0 downloads available though I was able to download the Pathfinder players guide.Did I misunderstand somthing in this regards or is there a problem somehow.

Purchasing single modules and/or single pathfinder book wont get you a free PDF. You get free PFD only for issues that come from Modules Subscription or Pathfinder Subscription.

Though, you can still get a free PDF of Hollow's Last Hope directly on its product's page here.

Hope this helps!

While you will be in the process of your subsciption, you will be asked with which volume you want it to start. I'm pretty sure you will at least have the options of "current volume" (which is probably PF#2 since it started shipping, or maybe it's still PF#1) and "next volume" (which will either be #3 or #2, depending on the previous option).

Now, I'm not sure if you would get other options, especialy "first volume". You might want to "simulate" subscibing, just to see which are the option available right now. Otherwise, drop an e-mail to customer service for more exact information.

To webmaster/person-who-updates-descriptions-of-products: It could be usefull to have the current available options listed in the descriptions of the subscriptions. Along with mention that the final choice will happen in the buying process.

Even if only 1% of the population of a D&D world ever reaches 21st level, that's still going to be 1 epic character for every 100 people. Given that the population of Golarion is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, that means you're going to have thousands of epic characters, with a few traveling in groups of @4, just like the PCs (whom aren't the only adventurers, or shouldn't be).

1% of the population as epic NPCs? Or 1% of the adventurers' population as epic? With the adventurers being probably less than 1% of the population, something like 0.1% or even less. That would put epic NPCs at 0.001% or 1/100,000 which is probably closer to be a realistic possibility. Otherwise, epic battles would happen daily in every part of the world, and you would need an increadible amount of epic monsters and epic evil lords in the world, which would devastate everyting and spread chaos everywhere.

I agree Epic NPC cannot be totaly absent, but I also agree that we don't need to get 10-page blocks about them neither (unless they are the next ennemy the PCs will face, and 10 page would even then be a little too much if he's going to die soon...).

For good/neutral NPCs, I think that the Pathfinder Journal thing is probably the way I see them described to me. As a source of historical information!

Runelord saga are setted in a relative little area (a kingdom size).

A bigger world setting will be released later ?

While the RotRL AP happens in the Varisia region (and the second AP too, since it begins in Korvosa and lets us travel a bit around that location), Varisia is but a portion of Golarion, the new world that Paizo staff created to house both Pathfinder Adventure Paths and Game Mastery Modules.

Most of the Modules out or announced so far happen outside of Varisia (save for Sword of Seven Sins and arguably Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale which happens barely outside the southeastern corner of the Varisia map). It seems there will be a big metropolis in Golarion, named Absalom, and there will be other regions as well, to be discovered as the products come out. You can also find some hints of those regions, like the origin of the Kaijitsu family in Burnt Offerings.

From what I understand, the whole setting is a work in progress and will be detailed as we explore it through the AP and Modules lines, as well as in the Pathfinder Chronicles line. I'm pretty sure that the authors have a general idea of the main parts of Golarion. But they will probably discover regions, explore their mysteries, meet local NPCs and understand their cultures, only a few months before we do, while they are writing the products...

Since I play D&D minis, I thought I could use some of the maps I already had. I found out that 2 maps from the pack City of Peril work great for the first 3 encounters of RotRL1. I used small portions of the Market Square map for the first 2 encournters and a portion of the Thieves Quarters map (a bunch of rooftops and narrow alleyways) for the third encounter.

Since the other 2 maps are Sewers and a Tavern, and considering that the second PF AP is City based, I thought it would make a good purchase for anyone who wants proxy maps for city-based encounters.