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James Sutter's page
Fiction Editor. 803 posts (804 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. Alias: Kirin the Heretic.
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Profile
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Recent Posts
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Recent Reviews
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Wishlists
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Hey dudes - I think most everybody's on board at this point, but I would like to point out one last time that further "speculation" on whether or not Jenny is a real person is not in keeping with our boards' near-legendary welcoming atmosphere, and henceforth will not be tolerated.
If you think she's real - good! You're right.
If you think this is all some crazy hoax and she's a sock puppet, you're entitled to that belief, but that doesn't excuse you from the rules of social etiquette, which include not repeatedly challenging someone's basic existence when they're trying to have a conversation.
Don't make us throw down and start deleting posts. We welcome everyone here. Even Rolemaster players.
(P.S: On something of a side note, does everyone remember when Buzz Aldrin totally decked that moon landing skeptic? That was awesome.)
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For the record, before Jenny posted any links to her pictures, she emailed me and Erik asking if it was okay, because she didn't want to violate any messageboard etiquette. I will point out that this was well *after* she started posting about RPGs.
Yes, the internet is filled with sock puppets and spam. But it also has more than a few adult models, most of whom happen to have other interests, including RPG games. I have every reason to believe that Jenny is who she says she is - and that she's pretty darn polite, at that. If she happens to make a few new fans while she's here - well, haven't many of Paizo's Lords of the Boards promoted their own RPG-related business ventures here before? (Whether you like chainmail bikinis or not, you must admit that they're RPG-related.)
Self-promoting is a fact of life in many careers, whether that music, writing, game design - or naughty internet pictures. If you think she's coming on too strong, nobody's forcing you to ogle her, and you can treat her like any other gamer.
Jenny's cool in my book.
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Watcher wrote:
Celeador wrote:
I just noticed that one of the Authors is China Miéville, how often does he work on Pathfinder products? I ask because he happens to be one of my favorite authors. Ever since Dragon did the spread on Perdido Street Station I have been a huge fan.
I think this was his only occasion. I don't want to put words in Erik Mona's mouth, but I got the impression from something Erik said that China Miéville wrote his section for fun. As opposed to a burning need for work.. because he enjoys role-playing games in real life.
This remark stemmed from a question regarding if China Miéville would now write a Pathfinder novel, and Erik was saying Miéville's own critically acclaimed publishing success puts him out of Paizo's league. Sort of like asking Stephen King write a Pathfinder novel..
So I assume Miéville made the time to write a section of River Kingdoms out his love for the game.
My assumptions might be incorrect, but they're offered in good faith.
Watcher is correct. China was kind enough to invent Outsea for us out of a love for his own gaming roots, combined with the fact that he's generally an awesome guy. He also worked with us to stat up Outsea's ceratioidi race for the bestiary in Pathfinder #32, but so far those are his only direct contributions to the world of Golarion, though he's also been involved in the Planet Stories line, both writing an introduction for The Walrus and the Warwolf and giving me his first-ever story (and a really fun, in-depth interview) for Before They Were Giants.
In short, China + Paizo = BFF.
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Todd Stewart wrote:
Lightweights...
When you've been emailed erotic fanfic of some of your own characters, that's when you've made it big. Or something like that. Admittedly, some of it was really good. Creepy yes, but flattering at the same time in a creepy way.
Of course my Valentines day present this year was some really -seriously- well written fiction that involved me rather than any characters of mine as the victim in the story in a very 'In the Mouth of Madness' sort of plot.
:D
Actually, for my 25th birthday, about 20 of my friends wrote and performed a surprise musical for me, about me, and scored entirely with reinterpretations of songs I've written. I'm told the actor who played me captured my mannerisms perfectly (I'm still trying to figure out why certain scenes made everyone in the audience crack up). And that sucker was an hour long... they were in staging and rehearsals for like three months. Best birthday ever.
Your move, hot shot. :)
(EDIT: Honestly, it was so cool I almost feel bad bragging about it... but really, how could I not?)
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JM wrote:
Hey James, Lisa,
Any plans to do AUDIOBOOKS for Pathfinder Novels??
With all the iPods, iPhones, Smart Phones, Mp3 devices, etc.,, out there these days,, audiobook seem to be getting quite popular!
Thanks!
-JM
I'd love to see this - I'm personally addicted to Audible.com, as are several other Paizonians - but unfortunately audiobooks cost a LOT of money to do right (one of the reasons they're so expensive). If somebody big approaches us someday with a quality offer, I suspect we might go for it, but I seriously doubt Paizo will be producing its own audiobooks anytime soon.
(Of course, if Lisa DOES decide to build a recording studio, I'll be in there every weekend anyway... maybe I can be fiction editor and chief sound engineer....)
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Brinebeast wrote:
On a similar note to the above question. Something I noticed about Wizards in regards to their gaming products and their novels is that there was always a bit of a disconnect. Interesting magic items, monsters, spells, or locations would show up in the novels but then never get translated in to gaming products. Because of this I always got the impression that those in charge of gaming products kind of ignored the novels. Will there at least be some effort to take the intersting gaming bits from the novels and translate them into game mechanics?
Most assuredly, and in both directions. The game will inform the novels, and the novels inform the game. While I don't believe that every new magic item introduced by a novel needs to be statted up immediately (and definitely don't think that the novels should restrict themselves solely to previously published items, spells, etc.) the important thing about these books is that they feel like Golarion. And if something feels like an interesting gaming bit that's perfect for Golarion... well, why wouldn't we incorporate it?
This has actually been happening with Pathfinder Fiction since day one. When Jason and I kicked off the Pathfinder's Journal as a fiction vehicle in Pathfinders #2 & #3 (the two entries were written simultaneously), I had no idea what a bloatmage was - it was just a neat name. Over the course of writing the story, I got a much better idea of what they did, and now two-plus years later we've had bloatmages show up in adventure paths and are about to introduce the new Bloatmage prestige class with City of Strangers.
I suspect the same thing will happen with many of the novels... something will catch our eye, or the readers will let us know about something they'd really like to play with rather than just read about, and we'll weave it into the rules. And as it turns out, while I can't spill any beans just yet, I have a strong feeling you'll have access to some novel-related crunch right out of the gate... say right around Gen Con....
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SirUrza wrote:
The_Minstrel_Wyrm wrote:
Oh... and what about James Lowder (did I spell that right)? Didn't he write the "Lord Soth" novel way back when? Or as someone else mentioned P.N. Elrod would be another good choice, if Mr. Greenwood isn't an option.
Lowder wrote the excellent Knight of the Black Rose, which was an excellent Ravenloft novel about Soth.
Lord Soth was the second Soth novel in a 6 part Dragonlance novel series (not all the book in the series were on Soth) by someone else.
In any case, James Lowder would be great.
Lowder's working on his own stuff a lot these days, but he's been in our wheelhouse since the beginning, and we have the highest regard for both his writing and his advice!
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Celestial Healer wrote:
I would say the biggest argument against this scenario is that it has never occurred previously. There have been a number of times throughout history where wars and invasions have caused a significant skew in gender balance, and an "outburst of homosexuality" has never been documented.
I had told myself I wouldn't touch this thread with a ten-foot pole, but since the thread seems to have swtiched focus...
Actually, though high school history books don't talk about it a lot, it's a widely understood fact that homosexuality was practiced rampantly in the Old West, due to a number of reasons. The primary one, of course, is that most of the folks headed out west to build their homes or prospect for gold were men. And when you got a ratio of hundreds to one for men to women, homosexuality has a harder time staying buried.
Did the lack of women "turn men gay"? Probably not (though I suspect more than one upstanding citizen found himself surprisingly pleased with the new situation). But as they say, people have urges, and any port in a storm. I think those men with a serious aversion to homosexual contact probably didn't engage. But for those with the slightest leaning in that direction... well, why not? After all, the more people who engage in same-sex activity within a community, the more acceptable it becomes. And I imagine there was a fair amount of splitting hairs (here I'm reminded of the "I'm not gay, you are!" arguments in Brokeback Mountain).
There were other reasons too, of course - for instance, in the case of San Francisco, the city became a dumping ground for Navy men dismissed for "conduct unbecoming" (no pun intended), which helped give bolster the local gay community and eventually led to the San Francisco we all know today. (They talk about it a little bit in "Milk," which is a film I think could help a lot of folks better understand the gay rights movement... there are some striking similarities between what happened 30 years ago and what's happening now.)
I know that, in Seattle's pioneer days, there certainly weren't enough "seamstresses" (as most of the prostitutes were listed on tax records) to go around... and even then, there was a surprising openness around homosexuality. If you take the Seattle Underground tour, there's one rather prevalent photograph of a madam and several of her working girls... except that if you look closer, it becomes immediately obvious that one of the girls is actually a man in a dress.
The past: sometimes more progressive than you think!
/end history rant
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The Pathfinder RPG is completely playable as-is. It works, period. We did not specifically hold out things that we consider a necessary part of the game just to make you buy a second book.
If you buy a car, and they offer to sell you a radio separately for it, does that mean your car is incomplete, and won't run?
If a video game later offers downloadable content providing a new gun, or a new map, does it mean the original release was flawed?
If I sell you a book full of photos of Kirsten Bell in her skivvies, and later she releases *more* photos of her in her skivvies, is the original book broken? (Sorry for the analogy... there was a lot of Veronica Mars going on at my house last night.)
The concept that offering you more options later invalidates the totally functional original is ludicrous. It's not even like a cell phone, where if you want one with the latest camera you have to buy the whole thing over again. With us, you can buy *just* the add-on... and we're working toward letting you know whenever those become available.
Also, I'd like to point out that the original question was asked at 6:48pm on a Friday, and some people were disappointed that it took James Jacobs - the biggest workhorse in the Paizo stable - until Sunday to answer it. That's SUNDAY, people. A theoretical day of rest. We all love our jobs, and the folks on the messageboards, but let's have a little perspective. All work and no play means people coming through the door with an axe on Monday morning, and then NOBODY would get any new content. :P
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Mosaic wrote:
Maybe this is where I'm inappropriately mixing my Pathfinder Society experiences with my concept of the core rules campaign setting. I've played about 30 PFS mods now, with tables ranging from 4-8, say 6 average, a lot of the same co-players but not always, meaning I've probably adventured with 60 different fellow Pathfinders. And as far as I know, none of them have gone through Pathfinder training in Absalom. They've all got great backstories and different explanations of how they came to be Pathfinders, but everyone I've delved with seems to be a field promotion. In my experience, it's just more common.
Recall that this book is fairly new, hence people with established PFS characters aren't going to match info presented in it exactly. Also, it's been emphasized before, but while org play scenarios fit as well as possible into the canon of the world, we have zero control over players or GMs (nor would we seek to have any)... we just set the stage.
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KnightErrantJr is right on the money, in my opinion. The intention with the field promotion sidebar was to allow people to play the Pathfinders either way - joining up on the fly via their great accomplishments or going through more formal channels. The latter makes more sense to me, as they're a powerful organization with ties throughout the world, not just a loose consortium of whatever adventurers want to lay claim to their name. But again, the Pathfinders should be whatever you need them to be in your game, and with so many conflicting personalities and hardcore individualists, there's no question that various Pathfinders (and venture-captains, and maybe even Decemvirate members) have different views on what the organization should be. Heck, the second Pathfinder Lodge to be established almost split the Society in two, and resulted in the creation of the venture-captain rank. The captains in your favorite region can be anti-establishment zealots who pass out commissions like candy as a thumb in the eye of their superiors, should you so desire, and the new Pathfinder's Journal deals precisely with the kind of self-aggrandized hero who doesn't want to wait for a commission to start being a Pathfinder....
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James Sutter
(Fiction Editor),
