James Laubacker's page

Well, you could look at it from the other point of view: our consistent pricing allows you to pick up Northwest of Earth, which clocks in around 380 pages, for the same price.

That's a good perspective. As long as the average is about 250 pages, I'll be satisfied. I guess that means you wouldn't consider a lower price on the shorter books?

The books are great, and I really like the whole concept. You guys keep coming up with great ideas! However, I do have a comment about value. I would have liked Lord of the Spiders a lot better at $10.99 or $11.99. That book is a bit too short to have the same cover price as the others in the series. I realize the format commands a higher price, but that one was really pushing it.

Thank you Mr. Gygax for many, many hours of fun and friends, and thanks to Eric for his excellent tribute here. Keep it up Eric, and you'll be remembered as fondly.

Rise of the Runelords, for all it's dark theme nature, goes far beyond just killing foes and taking their junk. It's what brought me back to the game.. I dunno 17 years.

I think the story line and theme of ancient, world affecting evil is excellent. I like being able to refer to 'Thassilon', and having the players (and characters) go 'What'? Its so far back in the past they have no idea what it means, but they will, soon. The layers of evil leaders is excellent, and I liked the 'name dropping' sidebar tip in Hook Mountain. Its obvious, but its a great hook.

I concede that Hook Mountain was a good ceiling for adult themes.. But I'm enjoying the series as it is, and don't want to see it (or future AP's) sanitized as an abrupt reaction.

That's a very good way of putting it. I don't want them sanitized either, but I do want the ceiling to come down a bit. There's no need to be sick.

Thank you, James. Hook Mountain wasn't the only example, The Skinsaw Murders started the trend, and to some extent, Burnt Offerings. I hope to see the end of the overly 'mature' themed material in the next installment.

So far, I really like Varisia, and the Pathfinder concept. I think you folks are doing a good job with the product concept and presenting DM's with a good campaign series. I was very excited when you announced the concept.

However, I'm liking each Pathfinder module less and less. Hook Mountain contains far too much 'mature' content and gratuitous gore. This product should actually have an age rating on it, it is not suited for anyone under 17. If you want to produce a 'classic' series of modules, as I see folks in other threads proclaiming these modules to be, they have to be better written. Writing modules for the sheer shock value does not produce good modules. The unnecessary, crude, degrading parts of these modules just don't belong.

A classic module is one that gets played over and over, shared, discussed, treasured. I can't see Hook Mountain Massacre being any of those things. I can't see many folks sharing something of this nature.

I like what you're doing, I want to support it, but if the next module is as bad, I'll be cancelling the subscription, and looking for a refund.

I hate to interrupt to ask a real question, but... (ok, I don't, really)

If Sandpoint has 1200 inhabitants, and there's 59 numbered locations, not all of which are dwellings, where does everyone live? I'm assuming that almost all of the shops have living quarters above/behind them, but that still leaves a lot of unnamed people who have to live somewhere. Can I assume there are buildings not on the map, or are all of the non-numbered buildings dual family homes? There's roughly 100 of those unnumbered buildings.

That may seem unnecessary, but I'm trying to get a feel for the place. Is it a sparsely populated small town, or more crowded? Are there a lot of people on the streets, kids playing in the streets, etc?

Also, a couple key merchants that I think are missing: a potter and a tinker, and also a well. Where does everyone get their water? What do they put it in, and who repairs things the blacksmith doesn't? What about a dairy?

I'd disagree with equating Hextor with Asmodeus. They are quite different deities - one is a warlike deity focused on combat and warfare, the other is more of a politician. Besides which, Asmo, as a devil, exists in both realms so doesn't need an equivalent. That being said, I'm not sure where Hextor fits.

I dropped in some answers for these on the other thread, but the short version is nope, we can't do an official correlation between our pantheon of deities and any of Wizards of the Coast's pantheons, including the core Greyhawk pantheon. And the farmlands are not included in Sandpoint's population total.

Sorry James, I'm not sure I found the other thread. I did see your comments in the first thread, but if they are somewhere else, could you post a link? I understand the answer, I'll use the 'unofficial' list.

I really enjoyed Pathfinder 1 and am looking forward to getting #2. I think you guys are doing an excellent job with this and your GameMastery products. I do have a couple quick questions though.

Would it be possible to make an official correlation between the pantheon in Pathfinder, and the core Greyhawk pantheon? I will most likely keep some of the pantheon intact (Desna, Lamashtu, at least) but as I run multiple games, I may introduce the core deities to reduce confusion for myself and the players, and I'd prefer to do it in such a way that I don't cause problems later.

One small question about Sandpoint - does the listed population include the farmlands homesteads, or just the people living in town?

Jim

A couple of questions then:

The population of Sandpoint is listed as 1200 - does that include the farmlands homesteads, or just the inhabitants of the walled part of the town. Does it include the residents of the manors? What's the racial mix?

Could someone at Paizo possibly come up with a list of the Core deities that we might use to replace the deities (some) in the pantheon in the module? I'd rather not use a 100% entirely new pantheon, but I also don't want to omit one that's key to the future story line.

Thanks, Jim

Can we ask questions about the material in Burnt Offerings here? I don't think any of them are spoilers, just have some background questions I'd like to ask.

This is the second time that WOTC has affected my game play. First it was with Code Monkeys CMP (e-tools) and now this. I think I am about to break out my old TSR stuff and never turning back. What will be next all of the books on pdf?

Very Diappointed,

Halberad the pissed

I agree completely. This is perhaps the dumbest idea they've had yet. The game world is not ready yet for a 100% online experience. Nothing compares to print yet. I've subscribed to Dragon since issues in the 50's, I'll miss it, and it will certainly reduce my expose (and interest) in other Wizard's products. They should seriously reconsider this decision. I feel sorry for the good folks at Paizo that have done an excellent job with the magazines the last year or two.

Jim