Mark Moreland's page

My downloads used to maintain my sorting from visit to visit (I like to keep them sorted by date added to my downloads), but it no longer does.

We haven't really said more than a few sentences about any of the Eldest, and until we do a book exploring the First World more, we're unlikely to expand upon them very much. There are a number of us on the team that really want to do more with the First World and the Eldest (most namely Senior Editor James Sutter), so it's just a matter of time. Despite this, there's currently nothing on the schedule to shed more light on Count Ranalc or his connection to Nex.

Psiphyre wrote:

So, unless said god is currently worshipped in the Inner Sea, real-world or 'generic' (What's that?) gods are unlikely to be featured in the book.

By Generic I just mean gods representing very broad ideas with little backstory making them easy to transplant into settings. Just any excuse to not have to make new deities each time I make a non Golarion game.

Books in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line assume the reader is using the world of Golarion. While it's possible we'll do a book at some point in the world-neutral Pathfinder RPG line that presented deities other than our own "core 20," we don't currently have such a book on the schedule, and this book won't fill that niche. Until such time as we (or a 3rd-party publisher) make such a book, you can always use the 300+ gods presented in this book as templates and reflavor them or make mechanical adjustments to their domains, areas of interest, favored weapons, granted subdomains, and so forth to make them fit with your home-brewed setting.

Yes, the term "Eldest," when referring to the demigod equivalents from the First World, is Paizo IP, as are the names and descriptions of the specific entities who make up that category.

I don't have time to post recaps, alas... but maybe you can convince one of the players to do so? ;-P

If you can find one of them who isn't just as busy as James is, that is.

There are specific thematic elements of this scenario that don't really work for brand new, 1st-level characters. Also, toys that some characters with more investment in the campaign are likely to want to play with.

Mark Moreland wrote:

If you look at our other product lines, you'll see that we haven't officially solicited anything past July. Emerald Spire is releasing in June, so the next quarterly release thereafter is not likely to be announced until we post the September releases.

So Q1 module is always the superstar winner?

then other modules for Q2,Q3 and Q4?

I wouldn't say the Superstar module is always in Q1, but given the amount of time needed for us to slot a product that we can't start working on until March into the schedule does necessitate it being several months later at the earliest. Tears slipped a bit from its initial release date due to other factors.

This year, one of the quarterly slots was consumed by the more-than-double-sized Emerald Spire, which we would have been unable to produce in addition to the existing time allotted for a quarterly product. Tears should have been Q4 and then we would have had no module in Q1 while we worked on Emerald Spire for Q2. The final outcome is that we had no Q4 module in 2013 but will have a Q1 and Q2 this year.

Did that change in Pathfinder? Are deities subject to such a weakness... or you just said that's it's too trivial to even bother with it, so no deity can ever die?

There are a lot of elements from past editions of D&D that didn't get picked up in Pathfinder. In some cases, this is because they are identifiably intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast and weren't included in the OGL (this includes things like the Blood War and the Great Wheel cosmology) and in other cases it's because Pathfinder is a different game and setting and has different base assumptions. This is a case of the latter.

As to whether gods can die, we've named a number of dead gods, who were killed by other gods (Curchanus, for example), cataclysms on a cosmic scale (like Amaznen), or mysterious circumstances that have never been revealed (like Aroden). Aroden's death just over a century ago is one of the key thematic elements of the Pathfinder campaign setting, as with him died the reliance on omens and prognostication, and his absence allowed the demons of the Worldwound to breach the Material Plane.

In short, gods can die, though they do so very rarely. When they do, it tends to be a BIG DEAL and have huge ramifications both for other deities and the mere mortals who populate the cosmos.

The PRCs will be deity specific?

Yes, in the same way that the diabolist and demoniac are deity-specific.

Cheapy wrote:

My spleen! :(

And I thought this change happened 2 weeks ago?

I just noticed today. Was there an announcement?

No, there was no announcement. We started inserting Paizo Inc. here and there shortly after the start of the year, but it was much more recently that the logo and such were updated.

If you look at our other product lines, you'll see that we haven't officially solicited anything past July. Emerald Spire is releasing in June, so the next quarterly release thereafter is not likely to be announced until we post the September releases.

And maybe one more because it's a bit interesting in that it's still a spoiler but also not exactly true either

** spoiler omitted **

You're confusing the Blakros Matrimony (Season 4), with the Grand Convocation that ran exclusively at PaizoCon and PaizoCon UK the preceding summer. Since no one can play that event any longer, giving more background on the events that transpired during it (and the metaplot consequences of those events) actually helps interweave the special event into the campaign for those who weren't present.

As for the other one, that's a simple edit to obfuscate the proper nouns.

There's not that much more in the summary than one could glean by reading between the lines at the compiled product descriptions of the season's component scenarios.

3) Is there a book containing some additional background information on the Jeweled Sages? One of the new Mummy's Mask-associated products perhaps? Some background on the order would really help with the framing of this scenario.

We decided to leave the Jeweled Sages exclusive to Pathfinder Society scenarios so that participants in the campaign can enjoy the sense of discovery of the order's history and secrets. Thus, there's not currently anything written on them save what's in this adventure arc and the few mentions of the order from prior scenarios. A lot is yet to be revealed in the third part of this arc and other future scenarios.

I significantly added to the overview in the wiki for the Year of the Ruby Phoenix, after a discussion with John here in the office. We decided that as long as spoilers were general (as in, "The Pathfinders defeated a dragon and learned of the location of the hidden temple" rather than "The PCs fought a CR 7 red dragon with 3 zombie minions, then uncovered Marcos Farabellus as a traitor and veiled master") then citing each scenario is actually preferred. This maintains the wiki's citation policy, and gives people trying to catch up on previous seasons a more thorough overview. Content that plays directly into the season's metaplot (in the case of my example, the Ruby Phoenix/Hao Jin Tapestry scenarios) are separated from the plot elements which touch on other multi-season continuity, like the introduction of recurring characters from later seasons, or spiritual sequels to older scenarios. Anyone who wants to expand on and reorganize the overviews of the other seasons is welcome to do so, using my Season 3 example as a template.

Characters should level to 17th at the end of the first layer of the dungeon. They should get to 18th shortly before they encounter the final boss.

Adam Daigle wrote:

Turns out, James is currently running a Temple of Elemental Evil for all the developers. We've just hit second level, so we're still in the moat house. We're playing as having it set on the Isle of Kortos. There might be better places, but it's serving us well so far.

Wonders if any of the developers got "Frog Swallowed" ;) - also wonders if it's the original one, or the return to one?

No one got swallowed because my barbarian one-shotted all of them. One Small character was at risk, but never ended up in an amphibious gullet. I believe James is using the original version of the adventure, and is simply slotting in Pathfinder RPG versions of all the enemies on the fly as we encounter them, even if they now possess a challenge rating far above what our characters should be able to handle.

I assume my lifeless body was lying slumped in a corner somewhere in one of those scenes, right?

Nope. The ninjas in the coffee shop are using saucer-sized chunks of your mangled corpse as really messy shuriken, splattering blood and viscera in slow-motion through the air and onto the cafe's other patrons, like a twisted Takashi Miike-Jackson Pollock collaboration.

One can also check out our Catalogue and Product Schedule. A new catalogue is released annually in August, and we update the product schedule more frequently as products move through the production pipeline.

While there are certain periods in Osirian history with a strong connection to Lovecraftian horror and beings from beyond, the Dominion of the Black may not be one of them. The dominion is, after all, just one of the many cosmic horrors with whom folks on Golarion can commune.

The official symbol of the Pathfinder Society is the Glyph of the Open Road. Most Pathfinders consider their wayfinders to be the symbols of their membership when traveling.

There's a section on different astrological traditions in the forthcoming Occult Mysteries. While it doesn't have much information on Osirian astrology (which isn't inherently different than other astrology in the Inner Sea region), you'll likely want to pick it up anyway, as it includes some astrology-related traits, spells, and other rules subsystems.

Varisians' common worship of Desna lends itself to reading into signs among the stars, and her focus on travel could be all the justification a follower of hers would need to travel to Osirion, whether to research astrology or just to see the world.

It seems like, if you're using the female pronoun when describing the character, that she's in fact a female. If she appears as either gender, then she's likely more androgynous than hermaphroditic.

Nice to get to know you better, Steve. I always find your contributions to the Paizo message boards positive and helpful, and am glad to see you featured here. Any chance we'll get to meet you in person at an upcoming US convention, or is that too far too travel?

Walt I think he means those specific 1 hour scenarios. Paxport and Goblin Attack are different adventures.

The second year Paizo was at Pax Prime, we did run the Goblin Attack adventures instead of running the Paxport adventures a second time.

The dates are correct, they're just in the wrong spots. –3412 came first, when Azghaad built the temple. –3399 came second, and saw the Naga Pharaoh tear it down.

Really? Nothing?

As the primary developer on the campaign during the seasons with the highest scenario outputs, I can say with authority that we overextended ourselves significantly during that time, in part because of my own ambition to increase scenario output for the benefit of the campaign. The results were less than desirable behind the scenes. So until internal resources change significantly, there likely won't be more 30+ scenario seasons. That said, there are plans in the works that may or may not come to fruition that will address the OP's concern, if not in the way anyone expects. I'll let others comment on those plans when the time is right, as I'm now only tangentially involved in their implementation (and the time isn't right anyway).

The title really says it all. What campaign setting-specific items have always piqued your curiosity or supercharged your creativity? What items have we mentioned that we've never provided stats for? This could be something specific, like a legendary weapon wielded by a historical figure, a lost relic mentioned in the backstory of some Pathfinder's write-up, or whatever.

Be careful, Itchy. The moment you finish this, everyone will be clamoring for detailed indices of all the novels and stories.

We have those, too, you know. Exhibit A.

If you're into the Harbingers of Fate, be sure to check out Occult Mysteries, coming in a few months. They're one of the secret occult organizations detailed in the book.

That's an error. The Thrune agent wasn't originally built as a magus, and her spell selection wasn't correctly updated in development. Luckily, it's relatively easy to give her different spells for which she qualifies without it affecting her other stats.

I also made a few stylistic changes to the page to make it a bit more reader-friendly. Thanks for the hard work on it, guys!

There will be four gladiatorial arenas presented in the forthcoming Inner Sea Combat in a similar format to the magical academies in Inner Sea Magic. As long as nothing gets cut for space in the final stages of production, you'll get details on the Grand Arena in Katapesh, the Irorium in Absalom, Valknar Gladiatorial College in Tymon, and the Bloodworks in Urglin. There are also large and notable arenas in Magnimar and Oppara that we simply didn't have room to include, even though we wanted to.

We've never stated in canon how many people inhabit Citadel Dinyar, but I'd imagine it's in the high hundreds or even low thousands depending on how many members of the order are present at any given time. To date, the most detailed citadel we've written about is Citadel Vraid (home of the Order of the Nail, near Korvosa) in Castles of the Inner Sea. It doesn't have a settlement-style statblock, however, so the demographics of its inhabitants are only covered in broad strokes.

Would a book all about the various Hellknight orders and their respective citadels be something that would interest folks?

We're always looking at new types of books to put out, and I think more than one of us here in the office think something like that would be really cool. Currently, nothing like that is on the schedule, but I wouldn't put it completely out of the realm of possibility. When the time's right, a really detailed city book like the ones you mentioned would be a lot of fun to put together.

Maybe I'm dense, but I'm confused about Alkenstar's topography. Where does the river drop? And is the river 500 feet below New Bridge? Is the river framed by steep cliffs in the north? Why isn't there another waterfall at the Hellfallen Cliffs?

The only waterfall on the river near the city is located right where the Screw is, so several hundred feet recessed into the gorge that runs perpendicular to the Hellfallen Cliffs. By the time the water gets to the cliffs, it's already level with the bottom of the cliffs. There are cliffs surrounding the river on both sides above the waterfall, but they're not 500 feet tall. Probably closer to 50 feet.

You know, I wonder if an editable page on the PathfinderWiki (here) would work better for tracking this sort of thing. The wiki currently has an article on each of these titles, so they could be easily linkified. Also, you wouldn't need to keep reprinting an ever-growing list every few months, instead just updating the same page when new information comes to light.

There are a few others peppered about. Quite a few anagrams and altered spellings of things folks on the staff over the years have respected and wished to pay homage to. In most cases, though, they are more similar to the examples the OP and Alleran mentioned rather than lifting a name and concept whole cloth from another source.

Paizo has hired a number of people who weren't local to Seattle at the time of their hiring. Rob moved from Prague; I moved from New York; John and Mike both moved from Atlanta; Adam moved from Austin. It's ideal for an employee to already live here so that they can start as soon as possible, but if you're the right candidate for the job and you aren't local (but could be), then go ahead and apply. Just know that if you can't actually make the move, there aren't remote positions available.

Possibly so, but if the material were reviewed they would likely act on it quite quickly. I would settle for just seeing the idea make it's way into print as a cohesive and complete part of the pathfinder system.

It sounds like you have quite an ambitious suggestion. As has been mentioned, we cannot, for many reasons, open any email or attachment that could be construed as an unsolicited submission. If, however, you really feel that Paizo needs to hear your suggestion, please post it on the messageboards. If we did see it and later acted on it, we would be on much sturdier legal ground than if you sent us an email stating the same thing. Even then, we likely wouldn't reveal our intentions to act on such advice until we announced the associated product(s), which would be years down the line at the earliest, given how far out our schedule is already locked in.

Washington may be a northern state, but its coastal climate means we don't get very extreme weather in either summer or winter. West of the mountains, we get very little snow (an inch or two a year) and temperatures rarely go above the mid 80s in the summer. East of the mountains is another story, but Paizo's not over there, so that's hardly relevant.

John Compton wrote:

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Can we get a BOONstick?

I would say yes, but sadly some gunslinger builds have abused the double-barreled boonstick, so we had to hit it with the boonhammer.

BAD.. No PUNS for you.. ONE MONTH. Go sit in the corner and work on chronicle sheets!

I think you will find that puns are something you will never be able to purge from a developer's repertoire, nor should one try. Mastery of language is something a developer needs to do his or her job, and puns are examples of such mastery. Puns, the highest form of wit, should be encouraged. Carry on, John!

There is an existing Pathfinder Wiki at PathfinderWiki.com.

It's got a no-crunch policy, so it may not be exactly what people are looking for, BUT the site added a new namespace for Pathfinder Online so that some game mechanics could be included and discussed apart from the crunch-free canon content of the rest of the site.

Perhaps something else could be worked out like that to save a parallel PACG wiki from needing to create their own world flavor content from scratch instead of using the 9,000 pages of content PathfinderWiki already has.

Adam I want to pick it up now but I can't it is not on sell yet.

You can, however, preorder it, and have it sent to you when it does release. That way you won't forget!

What clockwork info is in this? Want to buy this mostly for info on the clockwork & gun tech in this module.

There is a new clockwork monster and a new gunpowder monster, but there are no new rules for either in the general sense. You can find the clockwork creature subtype in Bestiary 3 and the rules for firearms in Ultimate Combat.

Also, was the entire geography of Alkenstar city changed?

I recall in the Inner Sea World Guide that it described Martel as being a town at the base of the Hellfallen cliffs, with towers that stretched up (and connected to) Alkenstar city. Then there's the bridge of the gods supposedly "soaring" 500 feet above the ground, touching the spires of Alkenstar as it connected the city to Cloudreaver keep and Dongun Hold.

Now the bridge is a half-finished highway?

Was I visualizing that all wrong or was that an issue of retconning the city design a little?

The details you're thinking of were revised between the Campaign Setting and the Inner Sea World Guide when the timeline of the city and the history of firearms were also brought more in line with the emerging gun technology we wanted for the setting.

That's understandable. There certainly are/were mythic sources tied more closely to other races. While we can't put them in this book retroactively, I'll see what we can do to get a few of them detailed in appropriate places in other products in the future. Thanks for the feedback.

What makes the Mordant Spire mythic is more