This Friday, I am going to be hanging out with my old buddy Peter Adkison on Google. We are going to be talking about the past, telling stories and answering questions! You can find the Facebook Event page here. Feel free to post questions you might want Peter to ask me there. You can also submit questions to the Google Moderator at this link.
This should be a really fun event! If you have liked past Auntie Lisa Story Hours or my Paizo Anniversary Retrospectives, this should give you more insight into the past and maybe even a peek into the future.
Feel free to ask me about my past companies: Lion Rampant, White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, and of course, Paizo.
I look forward to hearing your questions on Friday!
As many of you know, Vic and I have a fairly large Star Wars collection that we are constantly adding onto. With the release of Episode I 3D around the world, there is a plethora of new Star Wars collectibles springing up everywhere. Vic and I have the United States pretty much covered, but there are great items in other countries around the world that we just don't have access to except through websites like eBay.
However, you might be able to help us! If you live in a country outside of the United States and you would like to purchase Star Wars collectibles for us in your native country, send me an email at lisa@paizo.com and let me know that you are interested and what country you live in! I am hoping that with the great community that we have here on paizo.com, that we can cover the four corners of the world and get all those collectibles we have been missing.
So, I was thinking about ideas on how to make the exploration part of the Greenbelt more exciting, and I remembered hearing Sasquatch calls while watching a Monsterquest episode. They were really eery and creepy. Here is one that I like from the Oregon Bigfoot Research group.
In any case, what I am going to do with these sounds is play them while the party is camping at night, and explain how the howls are moving around the camp at a distance, as if something was stalking the party. I may even have rocks thrown into camp, which is a behavior attributed to sasquatch and also great apes.
Just a fun idea to throw a little mystery into the exploration!
As somebody who used to work on Talislanta during the early days of Wizards of the Coast, I love the fact that the owner of the IP, Stephen Michael Secchi, has decided to put the PDFs for Talislanta up on his website for FREE. Yep, you heard that right, FREE. Wow! Here is the link!
We are planning to update some of our Freeport material to Pathfinder. Freeport: The City of Adventure was the very first setting designed for the d20 System, so it seems only appropriate to carry that tradition on with Pathfinder.
I just saw a thread on ENWorld where Scott Rouse says that he is leaving WotC as of today. I thought you might like to know so you can give him your best wishes.
Scott was a good friend to Paizo and he will be missed in this industry.
So we've seen The Future of Paizo videos and Lisa offered to answer any questions we had about where the company is going in that thread. But I wanna know, on this illustrious anniversary, where the company came from. I know bits and pieces, but I wanna hear from Lisa or Vic or someone else who was here at the beginning how and why Paizo came about and how it evolved into being what it is today. Where'd the name come from? Why a golem? Why purple? Why so much win?
Since we are doing a future of Paizo thread, Yoda8myhead asked if we could answer some questions about the past. So that is what this thread is for. I'll do what I can to keep up. :)
Where'd the name come from? When we started Paizo, the owners were myself, Vic and a fellow named Johnny Wilson. Johnny came with an extensive background in magazine publishing, and since we were going to be publishing magazines, that seemed like a skill that would be needed. :) Johnny was actually running the magazines at Wizards, and since Paizo was started to run those magazines outside of Wizards, we just took that entire department and ported them over to become a new company. Johnny also had a background in religion and had a PhD in it. When we were brainstorming names for the new company, he suggested Paizo. It was a name that he had been holding onto for a while and was Greek for "to play, to dance, to sing." I just liked the fact that it wouldn't give any preconceptions to anyone, except for maybe we were a pizza place, and so we could use it like a clean slate and build up our own meaning for the name.
Why a golem? Why purple? The purple golem came from art director Kyle Hunter. Once we had a name, Paizo, we needed a logo, and fast. We gave Kyle two weeks to come up with a number of concepts and all of us fell in love with the golem. You may have noticed, but it is based on the Greek letter Pi. I believe that the golem came in purple when Kyle presented it to us, so we just went with it. I have always been partial to purple myself, so why not?
Why so much win? Well, that is all about company philosophy and culture. My business philosophy is that your customers are your most important asset. Listen to them and they will guide you well, because what is a business but an entity that is making something that a bunch of other people want to buy. If you don't listen to your customers, then you could very well drift away from them and lose them. And that is where businesses fail, IMHO. The second corollary of my business philosophy is that your employees are pretty much as important as your customers to your business success. I have given talks to business schools and when they ask "what is the secret to success" I've always said that it is surrounding yourself with great employees. Great employees will have great ideas and if you are listening to your customers, most often those great ideas will find root and help the company succeed. I really that these two principles are why Paizo is so full of "win."
With the August 13 release date for the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook approaching, I'm reaching out to ask for your help. While there's a little over a month until the book is released, we're just a few short weeks away from shipping the books to our distributors. Why is this important to you?
With today's difficult economy, retailers and distributors have generally cut back on the amount of inventory that they are carrying. So if you plan to buy your copy of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook from any place other than from Paizo, we ask that you inform your preferred retailer of your intention to buy from them before Monday, July 13, and encourage them to place an order with their distributor by that date. This will help ensure that their distributor will place an order with us, and that you'll have a book waiting for you on August 13. Nobody wants to see the distribution channel understocked on the Core Rulebook on the release date; restocks can take as long as two weeks to make their way through the distribution channel—and even longer internationally—so a retailer who sells out might not get more copies until September!
So if you're planning on buying from your favorite local game store, please talk to the owner before July 13 and let him know you intend to buy your copy of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook from him. If you're ordering online from a place other than paizo.com, please place your preorder by July 13 so they know how many copies to order. If we all work together, we can get the right number of books out there so that you can get a copy of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook from the retailer of your choice.
Those of you who are planning to subscribe to the Pathfinder RPG line or preorder the book directly from paizo.com have a bit longer: you should place your order or start your subscription with us before August 3 to ensure that your book will arrive as close to the release date as possible. (We're also planning to bring plenty of copies to Gen Con in Indianapolis.)
So please take the time to let the retail venue of your choice know about your desire to purchase the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook from them as soon as you can.
We also wanted to let you know that the PDF of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook will be available at paizo.com on August 13. We've priced it at just $9.99, which we hope allows those who want the book in both print and electronic form to feel that you can still support your favorite retailer and purchase the PDF without breaking your budget. (Of course, those who subscribe to the Pathfinder RPG line will get the PDF for free with your Core Rulebook.)
Finally, we'd like to let you know that Paizo is celebrating our 7th anniversary today, and we appreciate all the help that more than 52,000 of you provided by playtesting the Pathfinder RPG, and that even more of you have provided by supporting Paizo as a company with your purchases and friendship on our messageboards over the last seven years. Thanks!
From myself and all the staff at Paizo, we want to thank y'all for an amazing weekend of fun and games. I haven't had that much fun in a long, long time and look forward to seeing all of you at Paizocon 2010! We are truly honored to have such an intelligent, creative, and friendly group of friends and customers here on paizo.com. Thanks again for the amazing weekend!
I've noticed a bit of tension and some not so nice things being said here in threads in the Off-Topic Forum dealing with politics. Like religion, politics can be a hot topic and one that can lead to poor behavior. I am asking each of you to be more careful when considering your posts on political subjects and to keep it civil. If we can't keep political threads civil, then paizo.com will have to take more drastic action and ban the topic altogether. You guys have shown me that religion can be discussed civilly and I know that you can do the same with the politics threads. Thanks much in advance for your extra effort to keep paizo.com the best messageboards in gaming!
I have been dreading my party's encounter with Xanesha for about a month now. I diligently read every thread I could find about other DM's handling of this tough encounter. I prepared to sub in Lucrecia from Hook Mountain Horror. But, of course, I didn't consider the party my strategy came up with. So here it is. I hope it helps out some other DMs in the future.
So I have six characters in my party, all level 6. Barbarian, Rogue, Cleric, Sorcerer, Ranger, Druid, all made with the Pathfinder Beta rules. I run a pretty magic light campaign, so nothing better than a +1 sword or +1 armor.
Spoiler:
The party finished off Ironbriar in the sawmill and found the ravens. A speak with animals from the Druid later, and they found out the ravens knew where Xanesha lived. So the Druid turns into a raven and flies with the other ravens to the clocktower. The party also knew that Xanesha was powerful and a magic-user. But they had no idea about the lamia matriarch aspect until they saw her revert to her true form in the encounter. So they didn't have TOO much info ahead of time.
So here was their plan, they had the mask from Aldern which allows them to disguise themselves to look like someone that they are looking at. The rogue disguises herself like Ironbriar and they all put on the robes that they found in the sawmill. They head to the sawmill and step inside. The Scarecrow eventually comes out when he sees Ironbriar. He is confused by why they are at the clocktower (I made the assumption that Ironbriar didn't normally come to the clocktower because of the whole messenger raven system). Our Rogue pulls off a thiry-something bluff and assures him that it was an emergency and that they needed to see Xanesha. At this point, one of the Faceless Stalkers arrives looking like a human manservant. After another great bluff roll, the Faceless Stalker heads up to talk to Xanesha. She has him bring Ironbriar and his cultists up to her nest on the top of the tower. The other Faceless Stalker joins them on the way up.
Once they get up there, the rogue plys her story one more time, this time not getting a great bluff. Xanesha catches the failed bluff and thinks that Ironbriar may be up to something. Before she can act though, the players attack! Because of the suddenness, I give them a surprise round. The rogue rushes Xanesha and even gets a higher init roll. Her two rounds of attacks take away half of Xanesha's hps. Other characters chip away at her because of her flat-footed, non-buffed AC. Xanesha and the Faceless Stalkers get to act and Xanesha almost puts the rogue out of commission in one round. After another round of pummeling the characters, she opts to flee with 27 hp left.
Xanesha takes off into the night (she had cast fly earlier to make a dramatic appearance before Ironbriar...have to keep the underlings impressed you know), bleeding3/round (due to one of the rogue's special abilities). She knows that she needs to get to someplace safely. After three moves of flight, she D-doors into a nearby hovel, heals herself, waits for the Glitterdust to dissipate, casts invisibility, and then sneaks off to be encountered later at Barl's cave in the Hook Mountain area next adventure.
The characters came after her riding summoned hippogriffs, but alas, it took them too long and they didn't see Xanesha D-door, so it was fruitless.
So Xanesha barely escapes because of the PC's bold plan. It was a neat fight and surprising her made her less deadly because of the lack of the buffs.
So there you have it! Beware those crafty players! :)
Well, Seattle has had its yearly snow dump and most of the Paizo folks are safe at home. Hardly anybody is at the office today. I think our warehouse guys are there shipping stuff out, but am not sure about Customer Service. In any case, we should be back to normal on Friday.
Just thought I would let everyone know about our adverse weather situation.
I just wanted to let you know that Josh is fighting a case of pneumonia and it looks like he is going to be out of the office for about a week or so. This might cause some delays in stuff for Pathfinder Society. This came on quite suddenly, as Josh was in the office on Thursday and I talked with him about GenCon UK at the end of the day. In any case, it would be great if you could cut us a little slack as we wait for Josh to rejoin us at the Paizo offices. I'm sure he will get caught up with questions and such once he is healthy and back to work. Thanks much!
Cookbooks are a lot like Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games. They contain seemingly rigid rules that, in practice, require a certain amount of adaptation for your own tastes.
So how come cooking gets its own TV channel and role-playing games don't even get a show on G4? Maybe the population at large doesn't want to pretend to be a half-elf. Maybe RPGs take more imagination than most people have.
However, it just might have something to do with the role-playing community. If geeks talked about cookbooks the way they talk about RPG books, the results would not be pretty:
Posted: 12:15 a.m. by LordOrcus I'm so mad that there's a new edition of The Better Joy Cookbook out. Thanks for making my old copy obsolete, you greedy hacks! For five years now, my friends have been coming over for my eggplant Parmesan, and now I'm never going to be able serve it again unless I shell out 35 bucks for the latest version.
Posted: 12:42 a.m. by Kathraxis Hey, I have a question! When you preheat the oven, can you start it before you measure out the ingredients, or do you have to do it afterward? Please answer quickly, my friends and I have been arguing about it for four hours and we're getting pretty hungry.
Posted: 12:48 a.m. by Goku1440 I found an awesome loophole! On page 242 it says "Add oregano to taste!" It doesn't say how much oregano, or what sort of taste! You can add as much oregano as you want! I'm going to make my friends eat infinite oregano and they'll have to do it because the recipe says so!
Posted: 1:02 a.m. by barrybarrybarry I can't believe I spent 35 dollars on a cookbook that doesn't have a recipe for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When I buy a cookbook, I expect it to tell me how to cook. And don't tell me to just make a PBJ myself, I'm not some sort of hippy artist pretentious "freeform cook."
Posted: 1:08 a.m. by jvmkanelly Where are the recipes for chatting with friends while cooking? Where are the recipes for conversation over the meal? When I throw a dinner party, I want it to be a PARTY. I guess the idiots who use the Better Joy Cookbook just cook and eat in stony silence, never saying a word or even looking each other in the eye.
Posted: 1:23 a.m. by LordOrcus Hey, guess what? They're coming out with The Better Joy Book of Hors D'oeuvres. It just goes to show that the publishers are a bunch of corporate greedheads who care more about money than they do about cooking. Is it too much to ask for a single cookbook that contains all possible recipes?
Posted: 1:48 a.m. by specsheet Hey, everyone. I can tell just by reading the recipe that if you prepare eggs benedict as written, the sauce will separate. My mom always said the other kids made fun of me because they were jealous of my intelligence, so I must be right. Everyone who's saying that they followed the recipe and it came out perfect is either lying, or loves greasy separated hollandaise sauce.
Posted: 1:52 a.m. by IAmEd As I have pointed out MANY TIMES, several of these recipes contain raisins, and I, like most people, am ALLERGIC to raisins! And before you tell me to substitute dried cranberries, I will reiterate that I am discussing the recipes AS WRITTEN. I do not appreciate your ATTACKING ME with helpful suggestions!
Posted: 2:12 a.m. by Herodotus I just have to laugh at the recipe for Beef Wellington. In Wellington's day, ovens didn't have temperature settings! And pate de foie gras certainly didn't come in cans. It's like the authors didn't even care about replicating authentic early 19th century cooking techniques!
Posted: 2:17 a.m. by LordOrcus I have read the new Better Joy Cookbook and I am devastated to my very core. Their macaroni and cheese recipe, the very macaroni and cheese I've been making since I was in college, has been ravaged and disfigured and left bleeding on the page. Where once it contained only cheddar cheese, now the recipe calls for a mix of cheddar and Colby. It may contain macaroni, and it may contain cheese, but it is not macaroni and cheese. This is a slap in the face and a knife in the gut. You have lost me, Better Joy Cookbook. I would bid you goodbye, but I wish you nothing but the pain and rage you have delivered unto me.
We really pride ourselves on our web community here on paizo.com. Prior to the 4th Edition announcement by WotC, we were constantly praised for the maturity of our web community and the conversations that we have here. But lately, in this forum in particular, things have devolved.
We expect our users to behave appropriately and intelligently. I don't think that I need to go into huge detail about what inappropriate behavior is, but I can assure you it isn't creating avatars with "vomit" in the title and then proceeding to vomit all over various threads, or any other behavior that is intentionally offensive or aimed at threadjacking or attacking folks.
We don't all have to agree about everything. Continuing lively debate is great. But some of the posts I have seen lately are the online equivalent of holding your breath until you turn blue and then throwing a tantrum. And that isn't what we expect from the paizo.com community. We understand people are emotional about what is happening to our game, but that isn't an excuse to act immature.
I am hoping that you guys can continue to police yourselves as you have in the past. If we can return these messageboards to the place they were before all this nonsense, then I will be happy. But if things don't get better fast, then I will have to get together with Gary, Vic, Erik, Josh, and Jeff and come up with a plan to put moderators in place. And that is something I don't want to do, but I will if I have to.
So continue to have fun. Continue to discuss the things we love in life. But please keep the messageboards civil. 'Nuff said.
I am running the Invasion of Redgorge in my SC campaign and I ran into a bit of a problem. Terseon Skellerang plays quite a big role in the whole invasion and yet, nowhere in the SCAP book is he given a stat block! What were those folks at Paizo thinking? :)
In any case, can somebody either provide me with the stat block that they used in their game or point me to some resource where this might be given. I may never need it in the game, but better safe than sorry.
Today, Paizo Publishing and Titanic Games announced the availabilty of its first anthology board game, Stonehenge to our distribution partners. It is also available now for preorder here on paizo.com. Stonehenge is our first anthology board game, a concept where you get one set of pieces but five different board games from some of the best designers in the world.
Watch for the 3rd and most devious Mike Selinker puzzle for Stonehenge on Thursday!
Today, Paizo Publishing announced two new map packs for 2007 to its distribution partners. Map Pack City will contain tiles for many of the most common city sites, such as an alley, blacksmith, fighter's guild, mage's guild, fountain plaza, and magic shop.
The April map pack is Map Pack Campsites. This will be a boon to any DM whose parties tranverse through the wilderness often enough to need campsites to defend against wandering monsters.
Today, Paizo Publishing announced the upcoming release of our first Downer comic compilation. Downer—Volume 1: Wandering Monster is a 64-page compilation of the comic strip from the pages of Dungeon magazine. Join Downer and his motley crew of subterranean adventurers on their epic quest to deliver the Ulolok to the drow city of Oubliette!
Today Paizo Publishing announced two new Dragon Magazine related products to our distributors.
The first is a special issue of the magazine, Dragon Magazine: Monster Ecologies. This 128 page special issue of the magazine will contain a compilation of the best of the monster ecologies articles from Dragon Magazine from the past 3 years. The compilation will feature new rules, art, details, and encounters. A must for every detail oriented DM.
The second product is our first comic compilation. The first is Tony Mosely's well loved Zogonia in its first volume, Zogonia: Slice of Death. Featuring 64-pages of classic strips from the pages of Dragon Magazine, this is a must have for fans of our comic strips!
[p]It's not every day that a whiny author calls you out on your own message boards. But that's just what occasional Dungeon author Greg Vaughan did last week. "You keep featuring everybody else's products in your blogs. Why don't you love me? Waaaahhhh!" Well, we got sick of the whining and decided to give in to his little temper tantrums.[/p]
[p]Mr. Vaughan's newest adventure for the Forgotten Realms setting, The Twilight Tomb, was recently released to much fanfare. (OK, really, it was probably just Greg's mom that was excited, but, hey, who's counting?) The Twilight Tomb is a standalone Dungeons & Dragons adventure designed to take four 3rd-level characters from the sun-dappled paths of the Yuirwood into a realm created by the Duskwalker, an ancient and corrupt star elf wizard. And we'll say this much for it: if you look at all of the official Dungeons & Dragons adventures released this year, The Twilight Tomb is absolutely one of them.[/p]
[p]So, please, for the love of all you hold sacred, give Mr. Vaughan's adventure a look. Heck, you could even buy a copy! It's reasonably priced! And if you like it, check out some of his Dungeon adventures. So, Greg, are you satisfied now?[/p]
When D&D designer and Malhavoc Press maven Monte Cook announced that he would be publishing his magnum opus, Ptolus; City by the Spire, and he wanted Paizo to do the miniatures to accompany his übersetting, it took all of about 30 seconds for us to say yes.
And if all this weren't enough Ptolus goodness, we still have a few copies of the Ptolus preorder kit, which features the core book and the Night of Dissolution adventure for the same price as just the core book, so you get the adventure for free! We will be fulfilling orders for the Ptolus: City by the Spire core book with the preorder kit while supplies last, so order soon to make sure you get the free adventure!
The Gamers is quite simply the seminal modern gamer movie. Dead Gentlemen Productions, an acting troupe based right here in Seattle, brought the funny side of gaming to our TVs just like Dork Tower and The Order of the Stick did to our comics. So when DGP approached Paizo about an alliance to bring the Dead Gentlemen product line to a larger audience, it didn't take us long to agree.
Check out the "Am I Still Unconscious?" tee from The Gamers, and the When Life Gives You Lemons shirt from Dead Camper Lake. And don't overlook the "Shirt" shirt, which will be featured in the upcoming The Gamers: Dorkness Rising movie sequel! Almost all of the Dead Gentlemen T-shirts come in sizes Small to XXXL—and they even offer women's tees for those looking for a more feminine fit.
We also have a limited supply of DGP Dice Bags to store all your cool plastic polyhedrons in. It also makes a fashionable slipcase for your DVD copy of The Gamers!
One look at our lavishly illustrated magazines and products is all you need to know that we here at Paizo love art. So we've decided to add a SQP's line of art books to the paizo.com store.
While we're on the topic of art books, don't forget that you can now get your preorder in for The Art of Dragon Magazine, due in October. As with all orders, we won't charge your credit card until the book ships, but you'll have the peace of mind that your copy will be sent to you as soon as it is available.
In most roleplaying campaigns, a character's equipment and other items are relegated to a scribble on some piece of paper, or perhaps—if you're lucky—on a 3x5 index card. In short, they're about as exciting as a tree branch in a forest. Yawn.
Well, Paizo's crack R&D team decided to do something about it. Enter Item Packs, the latest weapon in the GameMastery arsenal. Item Packs contain poker-sized cards with beautiful artwork on the front and a space on the back for players' notes. Now when intrepid adventurers collect new booty, the GM can present the players with cards that match the items found.
The first set, Item Pack One, is a 54-card deck that includes wands, swords, potions, rings, scrolls, and even boots. And since there are no game stats, they're well-suited for use with any game system.
Cheapass Games is the brainchild of award-winning game designer James Ernest. The big idea behind Cheapass Games is providing high quality games without making you buy the same pieces over and over again. After all, how many six-sided dice does one human being need? At Cheapass, you aren't paying for glossy printing and extraneous plastic—just a rollicking good time at a great price! How can you beat that?
Fans of Gary Gygax and Greyhawk have been waiting patiently for the Castle Zagyg series from Troll Lord Games. It is a well-known "secret" that Castle Zagyg is Castle Greyhawk in disguise; in the new version, Zagyg, the mad god who built it, has lent it his name.
Long before the Archmagi Zagyg moved into the deeps of the great castle that came to bear his name, he took up his dwelling in a house north of the fledgling town of Yggsburgh. There in the Menhir Hills lies the Dark Chateau and the wealth of the Magi's youth, all tokens for the taking if the adventurer be brave and have the fortitude to bury his comrades in the halls of the dead.
The Deryni Adventure Game and supplements are based on the popular Deryni series of fantasy books by New York Times best-selling author Katherine Kurtz. The novels weave a rich tapestry of romantic chivalry, medieval kings, a powerful Church, and a persecuted race of humans with the gift of magic—the Deryni.
A perennial favorite of fans of medieval fantasy, the Deryni setting offers roleplayers a rich world of magic and kings and high adventure. The Deryni Adventure Game is a complete roleplaying game using the Fudge game system (easy for newcomers to learn, and adaptable to other roleplaying game systems). The core book presents the kingdom of Gwynedd and the world of the Deryni as a campaign setting for medieval fantasy adventures.
We've got it all, from the award-winning Dungeon Crawl Classic adventures to the Compleat Guide series covering everything from Liches to Drow! We also have the first official Iron Heroes adventure, Song of the Blade, and the Morningstar Campaign Setting, one of the runners-up in the Wizards of the Coast campaign search. We even have the always-popular DM Campaign Tracker, which has been a strong seller in print form on paizo.com.
Paizo.com is proud to announce that we now have the full line of Palladium products in our warehouse and ready to ship. We have everything from the new Rifts Ultimate Edition to the hard-to-find Rifts metal miniatures. Kevin has even allowed us to sell some rare art prints, including the RiftsworkZ Portfolio, and a couple of limited-edition art prints from the Ultimate Rifts hardcover. We also have a couple of T-shirts to show off your love of the Palladium products. Check out the full line of Palladium products and find out why the Palladium System is one of the most enduring in the industry!
Everybody knows that D&D characters spend a lot of time hanging out in bars, drinking and gathering information. But supposedly, they also spend some time playing card games. Unless Texas Hold 'Em is big in your world, you probably just glossed over this whole aspect. Well, no longer! Wizards of the Coast has released a card game called Three-Dragon Ante, which is a meant to be played out-of-game by your gaming group, or in-game by your adventuring party, where a character's abilities can provide a unique winning edge.
On the book front, Forgotten Realms fans have Champions of Valor to look forward to. The counterpart to Champions of Ruin, Champions of Valor covers what it means to be valorous in the Realms. The book describes several good-aligned guilds and organizations that characters can join, as well as the benefits for doing so. In addition, the book presents an array of new spells, feats, and prestige classes appropriate for heroes of valor, and opens up new opportunities for adventure, fame, and glory for truly heroic characters.
And finally, hot on the heels of Fane of the Drow comes a new Fantastic Locations product, Hellspike Prison, which features two double-sided poster maps designed for roleplaying and miniatures skirmish play, plus an accompanying 16-page adventure that can be dropped into any campaign.
Occasionally we unearth something here at Paizo that is pretty darn cool. We were recently able to obtain a small quantity of the only 3rd edition Living Greyhawk adventure, The Fright at Tristor. It was originally available only with paid membership to the RPGA back in 2000, and was never available in stores!
Written by RPGA member Keith Polster, this adventure takes place in the Theocracy of the Pale. The adventurers are hired by the town of Tristor to investigate some animal mutilations, and along the way, they run into orc barbarians serving the mysterious Watcher.
For all of you Greyhawk fans out there, this will probably be your only chance to buy this official Greyhawk product outside of the secondary market.
If you've ever seen my RPG collection, you might have an idea of how much space hundreds of older D&D books can take up. But thanks to the folks at Wizards of the Coast, now it all fits on the hard drive in my laptop.
Yep, you guessed it, paizo.com now has a huge selection of older D&D and AD&D books, modules, card packs, accessories and rulebooks available for download in PDF form. That's right—everything from the Tomb of Horrors to Axe of the Dwarvish Lords is available at prices that won't destroy your pocketbooks. Most of these PDFs are searchable so you can find the passages you want easily. And there is no minimum purchase! Buy as many as you like, or just get that one product you've been looking for. While you are at it, you can stock up on any of the other products sold on paizo.com, digital or not, and you only have to check out once! Further, if any of the Wizards of the Coast PDF's you buy from us are updated in the future, we'll email you to let you know that you can download the updated PDF for free.
Also, keep an eye out—we'll soon be adding PDFs from non-D&D product lines including Alternity, the Amazing Engine, Gamma World, Gangbusters, Dragonlance Saga, and even Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys!
So delve back into the history of TSR and relive some classics, or experience them for the first time!
Earlier this year, the folks at Mega Miniatures asked us if we would like to have some exclusive miniatures for paizo.com customers. After thinking about it for about five seconds, we agreed! Since undead feature significantly in the current Dungeon Adventure Path, The Age of Worms, we decided to do a pustulent zombie infested with writhing worms. And thus was born the limited-edition Writhing Stranglers set of minis.</p>
This set comes with 6 Writhing Stranglers, cast in pewter and limited to an edition size of 500 sets. Each set will be individually numbered. When the last set is made, the molds will be destroyed. So if you are interested in throwing a bunch of Writhing Stranglers at your characters, whether they're going through the Age of Worms or an adventure of your own design, you'll want to get your preorder in soon. Because once they are gone, they are GONE!
Preorders will start shipping the last week in October.
As you are all probably aware, we are now smack dab in the middle of football season. Both college and pro football are approaching the halfway points of their seasons, and as the leaves turn their colors, we think about passing the pigskin around and immerse ourselves in various fantasy leagues.
If you would like to bring some of this gridiron mystique to the game table, then you might want to try Pizza Box Football from On The Line Game Company. This head-to-head football strategy game was one of the highlights of the various fall distributor shows and had retailers and manufacturers alike buzzing about how wonderfully it brought out the feel of a football game.
Order now, and have this fresh, hot game delivered to your house!
We're also very pleased to announce two additional segments of the GameMastery line. First up is the Campaign Map Pack. These packs contain 18 full-color maps that can be arranged in a variety of ways to create your own custom settings. As with the Complete Encounters, the maps are presented in a scale compatible with D&D miniatures. The first pack features a fully detailed village, complete with a tavern, a general store, a gallows, an apothecary, a marketplace, and a shrine. Drawn by cartographer extraordinaire Chris West, Campaign Map Pack: Village is due in November, so now is the time to get your order in for Christmas!
The second new line of GameMastery products is the Item Pack. Item Pack 1 contains 54 playing-card–sized cards to help GMs track important treasures. Each card features a beautiful full-color illustration of an item (weapon, armor, wondrous item, etc.) on one side, with a text description and room for notes on the opposite side. A GM can hand these out as the PCs get treasure and watch as players learn to love managing their booty. A code on each card helps GMs track which card corresponds to which treasure.
If you aren't familiar with Rich Burlew's hilarious web comic, The Order of the Stick, then you must have failed a spot check. This newcomer to the gaming comics scene has taken the industry by storm and has a growing number of fans who admire Rich's clever look at roleplaying through the eyes of characters who are aware of the rules governing their world.
Paizo Publishing has just announced a strategic alliance with Rich's company Giant in the Playground Games to promote and sell The Order of the Stick products through paizo.com and into retail distribution. You can read the press release here.
The most exciting thing, however, is that we're now taking orders for Rich's first two books. The Order of the Stick: Dungeon Crawlin' Fools is a compilation of the online strips that started it all; it has been unavailable since July (except at GiantITP's booth at Gen Con). Rich's newest book, The Order of the Stick: On the Origin of PCs is a prequel featuring all-new, print-exclusive strips; it sold out in a very limited release at Gen Con this year. You can place preorders for both of these books right now, with an estimated ship date of the middle of November. There is a chance that we might be able to ship out earlier, so get your preorder in early.
Growing up in the early days of D&D, I was a rabid reader of fantasy fiction for ideas and inspiration. One of my favorite series was the <a href="/store/byCompany/g/greenRoninPublishing/featuredBrands/theivesWorld"& gt;Thieves' World</a> books by Robert Lynn Aspirin and Lynn Abbey. Set in the decaying town of Sanctuary, this recently conquered outpost of the Rankin Empire was a living and breathing town like none other! I put Sanctuary into Greyhawk in place of Admundfort in the Nyr Dyv, and it was home to my players for many years.
Blast forward a couple decades, and our good friends at Green Ronin have revived this classic setting and released it for the d20 system. Their first product, <a href="/store/byCompany/g/greenRoninPublishing/featuredBrands/theivesWorld/v 5748btpy7f9l">The Thieves' World Player's Manual</a>, was released at Gen Con to rave reviews. It even includes an all-new Thieves' World short story by Lynn Abbey!
This week, the second book, <a href="/store/byCompany/g/greenRoninPublishing/featuredBrands/theivesWorld/v 5748btpy7f9m">Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn</a>, is being released. It provides the first new adventure for the Thieves' World campaign setting, featuring its most infamous tavern, which is set in the midst of the intimidating Maze.
For those of us who enjoyed Joss Whedon's short-lived TV series Firefly, its revival on the silver screen by way of the upcoming movie Serenity is something to get excited about. The world of Firefly and Serenity is sci-fi meets the old west, and makes a perfect setting for an RPG, as evidenced by one of the opening narrations:
Here's how it is: Earth got used up, so we terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with new technologies, some not so much. Central Planets, them was formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the Serenity. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher, and a bona-fide companion. There's a doctor, too, his genius sister from some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile. You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is.
The folks over at Margaret Weis Productions didn't waste a moment snagging the Serenity license after their company was formed last year. The Serenity Role Playing Game core rulebook is the first fruit of that license. Designed and written by game industry luminaries including Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Lester Smith and others, the Serenity RPG was one of the most talked about new products from Gen Con this year, with the preview copies released at the show selling out before show's end. So find a crew, find a job, and fly into the world of Serenity.
Artist Tony Moseley, creator of the much beloved <i>Dragon</i> magazine comic strip "Zogonia" has created this wonderful <a href="/store/apparel/accessories/v5748btpy7l30">glow-in-the-dark key fob sporting art from his "Zogonia" strip</a>. Now you too can show your appreciation for "Zogonia" with this key fob, and if you don't have keys, you can use it to light your path in the dungeon.
Check out the <a href="/store/apparel">complete line of apparel</a> and show your gamer status!
The D&D miniatures from Wizards of the Coast are one of the coolest things to hit the roleplaying table in years. Now you can have hundreds of decently painted miniatures for your campaign without lifting a paintbrush.
The newest expansion, <a href="/store/byCompany/w/wizardsOfTheCoast/byProductType/miniaturesGames/dn d/boosterPacks/v5748btpy7ftq">Angelfire</a>, brings a lot of cool new minis to your collection. The first mounted figure, the Mounted Paladin, is in this set, along with some other good creatures such as the Sword Archon and the Celestial Pegasus. There is a Copper Dragon, along with Djinni and Efreeti figures. And the forces of evil should be happy with the Hezrou, the Ogre Magi, and Blackscale Lizardfolk to name a few. All in all, this set looks to be one of the best ever!
Order your booster packs today to get in on the first shipment! Also, stay tuned for our singles, which will be up early next week!
The days are quickly dwindling until the release of our massively cool, incredibly huge adventure path campaign book, The Shackled City! If you want to be in on the first shipment of this groundbreaking product, we need to have your order in by July 22nd. Don't be the last on your block to pick up this highly anticipated tome.
Continuing a theme of revealing news about upcoming Paizo products, today we put up images of the miniatures sculpts for the upcoming <a href="/store/byCompany/p/paizoPublishingLLC/byProductType/roleplayingProduc ts/v5748btpy7fir">Compleat Encounters: Dark Elf Sanctum</a>. This product is the first in our new line of GameMastery products, dedicated to helping out the poor harried DM whose players take a left turn at Albuquerque. If the players' actions throw you for a loss, these Compleat Encounter sets will allow you to drop a cool encounter into the action without missing a beat. Each set comes with miniatures, an encounter map scaled for miniatures, and an encounter booklet with a complete mini-adventure.
The first set takes you down to the murky depths of the Underdark, where a <a href="/download/gamemastery/DarkElfSanctumMini1-large.jpg">Dark Elf Priestess</a> is using the powers of her evil god to summon a <a href="/download/gamemastery/DarkElfSanctumMini3-large.jpg">rather nasty-looking demon</a> through a <a href="/download/gamemastery/DarkElfSanctumMini2-large.jpg">thoroughly evil-looking portal</a>. In the coming weeks, we will preview the map art from Chris West and show off the fully painted minis. You can <a href="/store/byCompany/p/paizoPublishingLLC/byProductType/roleplayingProduc ts/v5748btpy7fir">order your copy on paizo.com</a> or ask your FLGS owner to order one for you from his distributor. In either case, this will be a product that will let you rest easy the next time your players throw a ringer at you!
And get your first peek at the GameMastery Campaign Workbook by checking out our <a href="/store/byCompany/p/paizoPublishingLLC/byBrand/gameMasteryLine/v5748bt py7fiz">prototype for the cover</a>.
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