I really can't imagine a worst problem for authors than limiting copyright to twenty years. Authors would be forced to abandon popular creative settings because suddenly every fanfiction writer (regardless of how good a writer they were) could then produce sequels to books that were earlier published. Whats more authors would loose any creative control of their property in film and other media. Imagine when in a few years A Game of Thrones copyright expires...now we can get all sort of "improved" versions from Asylum films and other companies where Ned doesn't die, or where Tyrion is actually a gorgeous fashion model. No thanks.
I think it would also severely undercut an authors ability to actually profit from their work, as you would see huge cuts in advances and pay from contracts, as a book would be overall much less profitable. Quite a few authors are not George R.R. Martin or Stephen King or J.K. Rowling; they are not rolling in cash and cuts in pay would probably eliminate their ability to pursue a profession in writing.
Now if you want to argue that copyrights should expire shortly after an author's death, I have less of a problem
yup Feytharn, exactly. There was a massacre, but GRRM largely kept the descriptions at a level of describing what happened (hit by bolts, stabbed, etc), and did not explicitly detail all the gory founts of blood and such.
I mean...I think most of us are smart enough to know what happens when you slit a throat or stab someone. The brutality doesn't come less from the explicit description of the scene, and more because of how surprising it was and how...final...an end it was for those characters (in the case of the Red Wedding).
Again...If your group enjoys those descriptions, good on you. But it doesn't imply everyone else is having Badwrongfun if they choose not to lovingly describe entrails or smashed brains
Paizo is an awesome company, but often it feels like the staff is working past the feasible limits of what the company can handle. It definitely I feel hurts them to some extent, especially when they have to double up on releases. There has barely been any discussion really of Fey Revisited, and I blame doubling up its release with Chronicles of the Righteous, which stole all of it's thunder and (I would guess) might make Fey Revisited a less successful release.
on a somewhat different tangent, it would be nice to have a section on the roles/attitudes/flavor of the different classes. I mean some are pretty obvious, like rouge or fighter, but what are oracles like? magi? alchemists?
Granted the Qlippoth have a somewhat lovecraftian vibe, but it's really hard to find much in horror that doesn't draw from H.P. Lovecraft. I don't see it as too much of a problem. As others point out, even Conan fought Lovecraftian monsters, so there is a long history of their use in fantasy.
according to the news article, this policy has been in place two years, and no one seemed to care until now. In fact the one solid news story I have found seems to be one parent complaining. How is this political correctness gone too far?
It's easy to bash a developer when you yourself are not writing hundred of pages of feats, monsters, archetypes, rule systems, etc a year for public consumption. I suspect most of the people here would do far far worse if they were in the developer's shoes.
I also get a sense that the rules are not written for power gamer optimizers...I suspect most people play at a level where they are not endlessly tweaking their characters for ridiculous amounts of damage, etc.
It was better than I thought it would be...I actually liked that I was spoiled on the Khan reveal, as I would have been more irritated with all of J.J. Abrams denials had I found out during the movie.
Spoiler:
Although the magic blood at the end was lame. I didn't for one second believe they would kill off kirk, so the long emotional goodbye there seemed pointless, other than just a nod to Wrath of Khan.
I suspect the same problem that I had with the last Abrams Trek will probably emerge. I enjoyed it while watching it, but a couple of weeks from now I will be hard pressed to remember much about the movie at all.
Minor annoyances:
Why the hell are there no ships around the Klingon or Federation home world? You think both races would invest in some sort of defense grid or at least have ships stationed and monitoring local space. Modern day USA has a better controlled airspace than that present during Federation rule
And really...The federation has no dedicated warships? I get they are peaceful for the most part, but how the hell have they kept from being conquered?
If they get the rights back and then invest money into doing a big screen awesome looking adaptation of Dragonlance (or the Drizzt books), than I think they will make a fortune. Serious fantasy is in right now, and people will pay to see awesome dragons and medieval battles (see the LOTR movies, which were insanely successful, and didn't just attract book fans).
That said, neither proposed movie has any talent behind it that makes me optimistic, and Hasbro seems more interested in brainless action flicks than producing anything else, so I see that being the biggest problem.
to back up a bit...I never got a sense that people didn't like Shattered Star because it advanced the timeline, but because people didn't like reporting to the Pathfinders, or didn't like the repetitiveness of the dungeons, or people thought it was too traditional.
although at this point I wonder what if anything this has to do with Wrath of the Righteous....
Although Lizardfolk are neutral, correct? So I don't see why you couldn't have lizardfolk being raised by other lizardfolk.
There Xenophobia is a bit justified, given that they have mostly been pushed off into swamps, deserts, and other environments that the other races are less interested in. Raising up Lizardfolk with human-focused gods and trying to "civilize" them strikes me a bit too much as what happened to Aboriginal peoples in Australia and the new world.
Although that COULD make an interesting adventure hook right there...
Paratrooper goblins sounds hilarious...especially since if they are anything like Golarion goblins, I imagine a good chunk of any raiding party forgetting their packs/pulling their chords
if the landmasses/island don't all float on the same level, you could have whole cultures of scavengers that basically live off the jetsam discard from those above them. Might make a great angle to take with goblins
Thanks Adam...I read a lot of mythology and folklore, and Pathfinder first attracted my interest because of your guys tendency to stat up obscure monsters.
I am unaware of their public stance on 2.0, but I would expect them to deny it all the way until they formally announce it. They would risk suppressing their current sales if publicly acknowledge a revision before its time. Of course, that isn't evidence that they are doing a revision, either. But simply that i would take denials with healthy skepticism.
The developers have stated they have no interest in in creating a new pathfinder rule set soon. I don't remember if any formal dates were proposed, but IIRC they considered Pathfinder to be at least midway through its production cycle, so that would be what, 3-4? years before a new edition was brought out (not to mention they have never stated what any new edition, if it occurs at all, would pertain).
If they were going to release a new edition at that time, I don't think we would see continued development of new subsystems (like Mythic), and unless it was only very very minor tweaks or reorganization of existing rules, I would expect playtests to be going on. Look at when DnD next made there announcement and how they have been doing playtests, for well over a year.
Also, I can't think of any worse marketing idea than to go head to head with Next by releasing a new rulest. If DnD Next flops, or drive away the existing 4E fanbase, having a thriving rule system that is well supported would be a good draw for new customers.
Pathfinder also just can't match WoTC in advertising. The DnD next release is going to sweep aside any attempts by Paizo to publicize a new edition.
Mythic Adventures is not a new edition of Pathfinder, and if we've given the impression that it IS a "stealth edition" then we screwed up.
I'm VERY concerned with this. From the statements from designers, and I'm paraphrasing, "Why would we not support our new rule books in the AP line." To seeing the Ultimates cameo in the APS, the release of Mythic Rules and their impact on future APs have me worried.
I was so not happy about the power creep in the Ultimates, I shudder to think of the impact of Mythic on my beloved AP line. Needless, to say I plan on skipping this AP. I just don't want to have to skip others.
The Wrath of Winter led me to believe I needed the Planet rule book. I mean the more Paizo forces me to buy rule books to play APs the more likely I am not to buy APs -- not the other way around.
From what I understand, you don't need to buy Distant Worlds to run Reign of Winter, since Triaxus gets a gazeeter article in that volume. And Distant World only did a light summary of Triaxus anyway (which was largely not rules content anyway, but setting information).
Honestly, I think one of the worst things Paizo could do is make new rulebooks and never refer to them in AP's and modules. Why should I buy a book that will never be referred to again? I got that impression from a lot of the 3.0/3.5 books which introduced new classes, races, etc, but then never referred to them in any other book outside the one they were introduced in. No thanks
I know this thread is in jest, but you do know that Gray Wolves (i.e. The Wolves in NA and Eurasia) regularly kill coyotes and are far larger and more powerful predators than coyotes.
There really is no reason to assume Arcadia doesn't have a equivalent degree of technological and/or magical development as Avistan. Even before the Ulfen settlement, they had steady contact with the Azlanti and were (probably?) under the control of a magically advanced race, the Syrinx. Plus, the whole "gods and magic are real" is going to results in technological developments different than that real life North America.
I loled so hard at some of Samurai's recent statements, especially that the Right cares only about individuals. I haven't seen anything in recent news that at all gives credence to that idea.
You say that it is okay if white people tend to hire more white people, because black people tend to hire more black people. Have you considered though that odds are the vast majority of middle management and higher level jobs in business, ect, probably have white people? Which means that it will be extraordinarily difficult for African Americans to move into those positions?
The Facets of Fear section you quote from classic horror revisited explains the horror behind the walking dead, specifically why people find them scary and how a GM can emulate that. However, all of that is very much couched in why WE, as people in the real world, use the walking dead in horror.
Just check out the other "Facets of Fear" from this volume. For Hags it discusses the superstitious fear attached to old village women and the male fear of women. That doesn't mean that old village women in Golarion are secretly Hags. For Derros and Ghouls, the literary and real world origins are discussed. These sections are not meant to be interpreted as Golarion cannon, but rather are simply explorations into origins and reasons for certain horror tropes. Other volumes have similar sidebars, for instance Mystery Monsters have sidebars on the actual legends of cryptids in our world.
I will note that nowhere in the actual game text in Classic Horrors revisited is it stated that the undead are made with the souls of the dead, but rather simply they owe there existence to vague necromantic energies.
I am not sure there is a completely novel creature that has become super popular, however they have definitely given original slants to several classic creatures which make them far more interesting than the old WOTC versions. Goblins, Ogres, Tengu, Derro, and Kytons all pop out as being unique and interesting.
Numbers : orders for AP#5-AP#6 of any Adventure path take only about two thirds of the relevant numbers. Most of those go to people with instore/on-order subscription. Hardly any sales after that. Go to any FLGS and look at the sales bin.... if you find Pathfinder, you find the high-end adventures of the APs, regearldless of author. That must be utterly co-incidental. The High end adventures.. sell like leaden shingle.
On the other hand, if the last two volumes were regularly underselling compared to the early volumes, don't you think that Paizo, you know...might have fixed that before now?
Paizo would be walking on rather delicate ground if they did a Yellow Dragon.
For one, yeah, they would probably have to use another name. While the name "Yellow Dragon" is not super descriptive, in the context of a DnD game it does do something.
Secondly, Paizo dislikes creating new versions of non-OGL monsters that don't already have a basis in pulp or folklore. Kind of why we don't have a Beholder or Mind Flayer with the serial numbers filed off.
At any rate, the developers have said we won't get any new metallic or chromatic dragons, as they are interested in creating more original dragons as well as keeping dragon types to blocks of 5
I said it feels MMO-ish because it is in fact derived from MMO gamestyle. Why should you suddenly be able to retrain a feat? You suddenly gain expertise with a bastard sword instead of a long sword that you have been using for 15 levels! [Switching weapon focus]
This has no place in a tabletop and shreds verisimilitude. So yes, feeling MMO is in fact a valid criticism. But if you want to be pleased the real reason I don't like it is a lack of verismilitude. It won't feel real, merely contrived.
Also I hate min-maxers. I'm not using that word lightly. They usually ruin games I run because most people I run with are not min-maxers. Just giving them more tools in their arsenal to ruin games. I think I would take a rules-lawyer over a min-maxer.
Wait...a high level fighter spending his off-time training with a bastard sword until he become good in it is somehow breaking versimilitude? I am pretty sure someone can do that in real life.
I mean if you are worrying about min-maxers...than don't allow retraining or allow it only under specific circumstances. Not everyone has a massive understanding of character design and is a min-maxer. Having option available to fix poor character design choices is great for new players, players without extensive knowledge, or just players that find a given tactic isn't working out well in their party. I would rather have players that actually enjoy the game, than those not having fun because of some poor early selection in feats.
I would question the idea that homosexuality (at least in some cases) evolved as a way of preventing overpopulation. For one, it doesn't seem at all to be the case for most mammals...rabbits, deer and rats will breed and breed until every last bit of food is gone and the population crashes.
The second problem with it is that historically infant mortality rates were horrible. There were pretty good odds that a family would have to bury multiple children before the their youngest ever left the house.
If the next AP after WoR is indeed Numeria/Distant Worlds (which is pretty much inevitable given the amount of requests these two areas get), the Bestiary 4 will have a lot of robotic and sci-fi ground to cover :)
I so want more Numeria goodness. Honestly Pathfinder APs are most interesting when they cover weird infrequently explored territory. The idea of fighting Rasputin got a "BAD ASS" from all my players, and is the principal reason I subscribed to Reign of Winter.
There are also alchemical oozes, which I think were statted up in one of the Carrion Crown AP volumes. My dim memory is that they are created as a result of alchemical pollution.
I remember reading an old sci-fi story about an explorer stranded on a plant where all the wildlife was psychic, and predators hunted by tracking down thoughts. I recall one of the native squirrel like creatures was able to hide from predators by literally being able to stop thinking.
So so predatory creatures that relied on psychic detection as their primary sense could be pretty cool.
I totally understand and agree with Paizo's take on reprinting stuff. I love my RotRL anniversary edition, and would love to see Curse of the Crimson Throne done up. BUT...I think giving even the appearance that "Hey, someday they might compile this AP and fix any bugs in it" is going to cost Paizo customers, since many many people would hold off on buying something in anticipation for a anniversary edition.
using existing earth mythos seems very uncreative, what are you bring to the table that is new or exciting? not baba yaga, Rasputin, or WWI era russia, all of these things are very well documented, and if you're versed in the folklore of the area than you have even less to think about. Time/Dimension travel is the vehicle that is being used to draw the player/GM/reader away from the fact that they are visiting the familiar. Maybe you have a "new and interesting" take on history, but the fact remains that you're molding clay that has already been molded.
90% of the monsters in Pathfinder are based on earth mythos, and maybe something like 75% of the setting is modeled after some earth period/nation, or combination of nations. Seems odd to then criticize Going to World War 1 era Russia as being derivative in that context
I hate going into these arguments, because I am pretty sure it is equivalent to talking to a wall, but:
Climate models are used because complex systems are often difficult to study. Turns out scientists can't make another earth and vary atmospheric components. It's funny that models used for climate are bad, but modeling is apparently awesome when applied to physics, engineering, biomedical research, etc.
I also get the sense that Sissyl thinks there is only one climate model? there have been many many models produced, many of which take in account thinks like precipitation and cloud cover. Scientists have also tested those models against past Cenozoic climate records, and for many models have found that they accurately predict climate as reconstructed from fossil/pollen/isotope evidence.
As for "Climate gate", the reason that the researchers were cleared is because hey, there was no wrong doing. Those were personal emails, and scientists generally are not robots and will refer to things in a causal matter, or use phraselogy that might mean something different to laymen
The rest of the argument seems to boil down to "one researcher/study was wrong about this one aspect of climate prediction, ergo EVERYTHING IS WRONG". Which ignores the fact that a lot of the predictions appear to be right, even if some of the timings are off. Also, if you doubt the science, try actually looking at the papers and research. Too many people cite failed predictions of TV shows or pop press articles as evidence that the science is bad. Guess what...pop press and TV shows regularly get things wrong. Or do you watch History Channel and think that "aliens did it!" is an accurate reading of ancient history.
I can't WAIT for you guys to see the great statblock selection of dog breeds that Daigle has put together for this volume! Statblocks for pugs, mastiffs, dobermans, chihuahuas, and so much more, including rules for constructing your own mixed-breeds like labradoodles, bulloxers, pug-a-peis, and more! The variety is amazing, and you're getting an ENTIRE BESTIARY CHAPTER devoted to enough breeds to make any fan of the Westminster Dog Show or the movie Best on Show envious!!!
I suspect Castrovel's oceans would also be an ideal setting for the Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting materials, especially those dealing with psionics.
I have not seen the movie, "The Mist." Thought on how it could be related?
Desna sounds like one of the most powerful deities, the more I read other people talk about her. Is it because she is among the oldest? I think I am missing the points on Hastur and Yog-Sothoth... I really need more PF books. :P
Basically a government experiment cracks a whole in our dimension letting the mist in, which is inhabited by a whole host of creatures, all of which appear to be deadly to humans.
It's more the idea of a thick permanent area of mist, inhabited by all sort of creatures that are deadly and you can't see until it is too late
No clue on relative age. I suspect she is younger than gods like Asmodeus and Sarenae. There is mention of her being mentored by Curchanus before Lamashtu killed that god. She can certainly be a badass, but not sure how here powerlevel compares to other gods in the setting.
