Mark Moreland's page

Also, an Azlant-focused AP is currently in the works and will come out for Gencon next year. Seeing as Thassilon was founded by Azlanti exiles, I'm sure a lot of the information will carry over.

Just to manage expectations, the AP really doesn't touch on Thassilon at all, and most the Azlanti stuff we have planned is very much Azlanti rather than common ground between Thassilon and Azlant. Even then, it won't be about Azlant at its height, but in the ruined state it's in now.

You might also look at Pathfinder Module: Fangwood Keep. It's set in the contested land between Nirmathas and Molthune, involves hobgoblins, and allows the PCs to pick a side when biting into the plot hook. It would likely take you longer than a session to get through, but even if you didn't run the entire thing, it might provide you some good encounters to lift for use in your homebrewed prologues.

Does anyone know how canon the comics are considered to the setting history? Because everything up there is just from the comics, so if they are not canon or are questionable canon... nevermind! XD

The comics are considered canon. The scripts are all vetted by (and often written by) members of Paizo's editorial staff, and all game content is developed internally, rather than by Dynamite. Other than the material's format and distribution by a company other than Paizo, it's as canon as anything else we publish.

In general, the books we publish are set in the present day of the campaign setting. While history can be fun for a GM or player to read, very little of such a book would help GMs run adventures set in 4716 AR. Believe me, I'm as much a sucker for in-world history as anyone, but ultimately, we're not publishing history books, we're making game supplements. As interesting as a detailed timeline and statistics of historical figures would be, neither serves the game as well as a book about the current state of the world.

Were we to do a large hardcover Pathfinder Society book, I imagine it would contain an expanded overview of the organization's history, but would primarily provide information for players and GMs on current members, operations in variously lodges in the present day, and rules and sample NPCs that players and GMs could use in modern Golarion campaigns.

The last thing we want to do is dedicate a lot of valuable page space to information that most players are never going to be able to learn in-character simply because it's too dense of continuity for GMs to integrate it into their modern stories.

Wraithguard wrote:

For that Golembane Warhammer +2, does it mean to say "For your combat check, reveal this card to roll your Strength or Melee die..." instead of "For your combat check, reveal this card to use your Strength or Melee skill..."?

Likely not. I expect Vic to post on this thread shortly by sighing, saying that the incorrect text always gets shown on preview blogs, and posting a FAQ entry.

Vic's on vacation currently, so any sighing and posting will likely happen next week (from him at least).

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game doesn't scale up to that level very well, which is one reason we've never statted up anyone stronger than demigods.

It sounds like you might be better served by a game like Mythender (a free game designed by former Paizo editor Ryan Macklin). A few years ago, Developer John Compton even made a blog post about a Community Use add-on to Mythender that allowed one to play the game with Golarion's pantheon. Check it out here.

TL;DR: You're not going to find official Pathfinder RPG material about mortals taking on deities, but other game systems or community-generated material might get you a close approximation.

Mum-Ra wrote:

Ha! In your face Skeletor!

Walks like an Egyptian.

Well, that said... at least I have no personal dislike of He-Man. Can't say the same about Thundercats, which is in my top 5 LEAST favorite cartoons. So tread carefully, Mum-Ra!

I think the Thundercats are number one on Mum-Ra's list of hated cartoons. He certainly seems to get in fights with them a lot.

This is a book I've long wanted to make, but the timing has never been quite right. I'm sure we'll get around to it eventually, especially if Erik and Wes keep asking me for book suggestions. It's currently not on the schedule, however.

The original intent of the Void Boys was that they be primarily rogues, fighters, and rangers. They're first and foremost brigands, and only adopted the name "Void Boys" after they found the weird statue. If the rumors of their use of undead are true, they'd need a cleric or necromancer of a high enough level to create and control all these undead. But any similarities between the void element and the group's name is coincidental, though you are certainly free to use all the void-related stuff that has come out since Moonscar was released if it feels right for your campaign.

The Knights of Ozem were specifically an Arodenite order, but we have never detailed whether or not Aroden had a specific code his paladins adhered to, in large part because our setting assumes that he has been dead for over 100 years, and thus has no more paladins actively getting power from him.

Jason Keeley: In a hundred years they're not going to believe doctors used to put mirrors and metal in people's mouths to clean their teeth. Isn't that a little barbaric?!

I too am sad to see the fiction go, both because it means 6 pages of extra work for me to do on a monthly basis, but also because it was one of the elements of Pathfinder that first hooked me as a fan. Back when I was just "superfan" Yoda8myhead, I even made my own lulu.com compilation of all of Eando Kline's adventures so I could more easily read them on my daily commute (see this blog post from 2009 for pictures)—my first foray into publishing.

I just received my physical copy in the mail and decided to take a quick flip through only to discover pages 17-32 have disappeared. Good thing I have the PDF.

Contact Customer Service and they should be able to get you a replacement copy.

The question of random encounter frequency came up at Gen Con, and I'm only now in the office to address it, so I wanted to take the opportunity to do so in case other GMs wonder how often to throw random encounters at their players in this adventure.

Because the adventure takes place in a relatively constrained area, and so much of the adventure is based on setting the mood and building tension, I recommend using random encounters sparingly, as they can easily take a party out of the story unless worked in seamlessly to the ongoing plot. Feel free to pick something from the Briarstone Asylum Encounters table on page 81 when the party becomes too comfortable or the story starts to drag, but otherwise, let the adventure present threats as written. If you do add a random encounter, consider using one that makes sense for the part of the asylum the PCs are currently exploring rather than one that might be more appropriate elsewhere in the adventure.

Additionally, the supernatural weather described in the Bestiary introduction makes for great encounters that aren't necessarily combat but can help increase the weird factor of the adventure. As long as it's appropriate to do so, I encourage GMs to use those effects over a random encounter during the adventure.

captain yesterday wrote:

It also isn't helpful calling something "abhorrent on so many levels" without at least saying what some issues are. I get criticism of Hell's Vengeance, evil isn't for everyone. But I can't think of any time I've heard it used to describe Hell's Rebels.

When the last one is out and I have time to write a review of all of it, I might. It will indicate what I find abhorrent about the first when tied to the second, as they are clearly intended to be, which is why:

Quote:

Paizo is pretty good at avoiding mention of AP events in other products.

Was violated here, and why I took the moment to decloak regarding my opinion of the whole thing, since they did break an otherwise generally* observed policy of not having APs or modules interact with other APs or modules in pushing the gameworld.

As one of Paizo's primary keepers of canon, I can assure you that the default assumption for the campaign setting as a whole is that nothing has happened except what is listed in the Inner Sea World Guide. That is the baseline for the setting, whether you're running an adventure that came out in 2009 or 2016. From time to time, specific stories we tell, either in fiction or adventures, build on past stories we've told and so assume those specific elements have taken place. In such cases, we do our best to provide guidance for GMs who are running campaigns that don't include the previous events, or for whose groups they ended in non-standard ways. That said, it's entirely possible to run Hell's Vengeance and Hell's Rebels independently of the the other, as they don't overlap geographically or in terms of specific NPCs involved in both.

Well, it really gets my Goat that they listed the 1973 Wicker Man, and not the superior, much more terrifying 2006 version.

This is one of those cases of sarcasm not coming through on the Internet, right?

Even deadlier: you tattoo SEVERAL images of creatures on the target's skin and THESE images ALL spring to life to attack the target.

Even even deadlier: you tattoo SEVERAL images of creatures on the target's skin and THESE images ALL spring to life and attack one another. The poor victim is caught in the crossfire and can't escape the gory conclusion because BOTH sides of the conflict are made of his own flesh!

Seems legit

Such books, while fun to read for a certain audience, don't really help players build characters, GMs run adventures, or fiction readers feel like they've read a good story. As such, there are almost always more useful books we can put our efforts toward producing. Further, they run a very real risk of painting us into creative corners. For example, if we release all of Iomedae's teachings in detail, and then want to tell a story down the road that either contradicts these teachings, or is based on things that are wholly absent from the in-world text, we've made it that much harder to tell that story, and thus, provided ourselves less room for making fun adventures, exciting fiction, or neat character options than if we'd left the canvas blank until we needed to fill in just the part that was relevant to our needs.

Happy birthday!

So, I wonder what team the people at Paizo has chosen? ;)

I know!

This book would have been great if it came out within a year from Kingmaker's release but at least we are finally getting something for the First World.

A book's greatness is not dependent on its date of release but on the contents of its pages.

The Nidal outcome was totally Alex's invention, and one that I loved when I was developing it. Given that the entire thing is a "what if" scenario that doesn't impact any canon or future stories set in the world, it seemed like a great opportunity to really shake things up. We currently have no plans to pick this particular storyline up in future publications (in part because we rarely assume any of the events in an AP have come to pass) but that doesn't mean that it can't be the seed of an entire Nidal-focused campaign in your home group.

If you'd like to help Steve's family, here is a Memorial Fund for Steven Russell.

Corrected Go Fund Me Link

I'll post here what I posted on ENworld, where this news broke.

Steve gave me my first paid work in the industry, and even after I moved on from writing and developing for Rite, he was always a vocal cheerleader for my professional progress. It can be overwhelming trying to catch up with every industry friend every year at Gen Con, but I always made a point of finding Steve (usually at the ENnies ceremony), sharing a drink, and catching up on the newest projects he had cooking. He will be greatly missed, both by the industry as a whole, and by me and others who called him a friend.

As a note of warning, for those particularly touched by this tragedy, the link in the OP leads to an image of the wreckage in which we can only assume Steve passed away. If this is something that might be difficult to see, consider the following article at ENworld instead: RIP Rite Publishing Owner Steven Russell

I imagine Smuz branching into derro next.

If someone confirms that there is a section or subheading in this book titled: "First World Problems", I will pre-order the book right now.

We already did that on the back cover of "Fey Revisited"

But even without puns, this book will be full of all sorts of awesome that are worth your immediate pre-order. I promise.

Theory:

Aroden and Ranalc voted to leave the Golarion pantheon. Motion carried.

The fallout from Rexit will take generations to fully comprehend.

Neither Lord Gyr nor the cornucopias have appeared in any adventures. All information about them is currently only in "Guide to Absalom"

So how similar will this book be to the Books of the Damned series? Are the Eldest going to get a similar treatment to the demigods of those other books? Any new Eldest?

It is very similar to the Books of the Damned and Chronicle of the Righteous. There are no new Eldest, but they each get a full write-up with obediences and such.

Hey LIz, is there anything here with how the fey interact with the kami and other nature spirits of the East?

There is not. The kami, while fey-like, are native outsiders and are not tied to the First World, but rather the natural places of the Material Plane. This book is really an exploration of the First World itself rather than an expansion on fey lore within Golarion.

OK! I'll be running Blood at Dralkard Manor in Tier 3–7. While it was originally published as a 1–7, converting 3 subtiers is a lot of extra work, and the lowest subtier is hard to pull off without a TPK, and none of you want that (I assume).

Morgana wrote:

Not something I was expecting to see on the BBC. You tell them ladies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36345666

Somehow, I was expecting them to have British accents in the clip.

Jessica has worked so hard to hide her Russian accent, it would probably be really hard for her to pick up a British one on top of all the rest.

Xethik wrote:

CBDunkerson wrote:

Lanowar wrote:

Could someone expand on the Investigator Talents?

Silencing Strike: Studied strike target unable to speak for 1 (on save) to 5 rounds.

Oh wow, that in particular seems great. Works well for an assassin investigator and as an anti-spellcaster option.

I'm not happy.

Quiet, you!

Any tips for successfully rebasing HeroClix minis? That's something I've been curious to try.

So far, I've found the newer ones to be easiest to work with, as many of them are designed to be used on team bases. The figures just pop off their bases without needing to use razors or knives or other implements of self-impalement. Because I'd like to keep the ones I don't have duplicates of in as good of condition as possible, I'm just going to use a wad of sticky tack to hold them in place on the new bases. It might look strange to have them all on little blue blobs, but it's better than leaving them on their Clix bases.

I was thinking about it. I can't sell the material, obviously, but I could release it on my blog for other people to use.

While each of the evil outsiders have their own agendas, celestial are together in their goal for greater goodness, extinction of evil and the righteous development of mortals. That is why they appear to be so equal when it comes to their objectives - because indeed they are all working together and for the same cause. They represent goodness, so they should be able to surpass their differences for a greater cause.

This concept was one of the primary inspirations for the the 74th House of Judgment that appears in the book. What do purely good creatures do when they disagree on the best approach to bring about goodness in the multiverse? What happens when they have different views on what the definition of good is? If you think alignment discussions are crazy on the Internet, imagine what they'd be like among a group of CR 19 angels, archons, and agathions.

Hey, True Believers! Who's excited?! I'm in the process of finalizing your pregens and getting HeroClix figures rebased for Pathfinder maps' scale. Just wanted to get a discussion started here in case anyone had any questions or if you just wanted to share an "Excelsior!" to show your excitement. 'Nuff said.

Hey all! The scenarios that have been updated and revised for current play are:

The Eternal Obelisk
Blood at Dralkard Manor
Eye of the Crocodile King
Hands of the Muted God
Skeleton Moon

The two bolded scenarios are ones I have previously run in past Out of Retirement events, so I know them and already have minis/maps and handouts for them. The other three will require a bit more work from me to prep, but they've been updated and have Chronicle Sheets from when John and/or Linda ran them at past OoR events. So I'll let folks discuss which they prefer this week, and will finalize which one I'll be running on Friday.

Alex Blaes wrote:

Tharizdhun wrote:

Which new book?

Magic Tactics Toolbox. It's got an archetype that gives you an upgradable clockwork familiar. Not sure why he can't say more, given that it's already shipped to subscribers.

What archetype is that, I got the book but can't find what you are talking about?

The archetype that grants a clockwork familiar is the tinkerer (alchemist) in Inner Sea Intrigue

There's always a chance!

captain yesterday wrote:

And what does it's tactics say for when it faces the Queen, and her retinue... Or is that not part of the adventure... tactics are there to help, not box people in. :-)

I'm just mentioning it because, the way that the critter is written (especially her morale) she should have died shortly after House Thrune took over Cheliax. Just annoyed at the inconsistency of how the creature is described vs. morale.

Someone being willing to fight to the death and actually doing it in the face of the larger causes it is sworn to defend, are two very different things. If every creature willing to die for its cause were to do so at the first opportunity, there would be no silver dragons in the world (not to mention countless other creatures and specific NPCs with similar motivations).

While answering other customers' questions about a book's contents is fine, copying and pasting the text of the book is not really appropriate in the book's own product thread. Please keep the discussion about the contents rather than reprinting the contents themselves. Thanks!

Edit: Thanks, Other Mark!

Sharaya: I would totally trade my scooter for a sky bison

yip yip

Deathlok would be toast against Magneto...er, that guy who can control things. He was able to play with Coulson's hand - with Deathlok he'd have pretty much the entire body to play with.

Wait, I thought they killed that guy when the Secret Warriors rescued the SHIELDies and took Mallick hostage. Or was that the guy with the medusa stare?

Xethik wrote:

Barachiel Shina wrote:

Mark Moreland wrote:

So far, every "Inner Sea" companion to one of our "Ultimate" hardcover RPG rule books have included new prestige classes. This book is no exception.

Really? When was the last one? The last time I saw a prestige class was Paths of Prestige.

Inner Sea Gods came out after that (I believe) and had 3 PrCs. But that one isn't based on an Ultimate book.

I hadn't realized that 'Inner Sea Magic/Combat' were meant to be companions to 'Ultimate Magic/Combat'.

Does that mean we can expect to see 'Inner Sea Equipment' and 'Inner Sea Campaign' eventually?

Not to mention, 'The Ultimate World Guide', 'Ultimate Gods', and 'Ultimate Pirates'! :]

We don't currently have any of those books on the schedule, but who knows what we'll do in the future. The Adventure Path line largely serves as "Inner Sea Campaigns" and Pathfinder Player Companion: Quests & Campaigns was released to support Ultimate Campaign directly. We have included new magic items in Inner Sea Combat, Inner Sea Intrigue, and many other Campaign Setting books over the years, but the closest thing to Ultimate Equipment in the line would probably be Lost Treasures, which is full of non-artifact items from the setting.

You'll have to talk to the rules team about the suggested Ultimate books, but I wouldn't hold my breath on any of them making the schedule any time soon.

So far, every "Inner Sea" companion to one of our "Ultimate" hardcover RPG rule books have included new prestige classes. This book is no exception.

Regarding this image:

Daigle: They'll hire anyone in Australia.

Crystal: To be fair, he has all the proper koala-fications.

Anyone else expect to see some of Bran's time-travel visions provide some clarity on the issue? When he looked back into the past, the first thing I thought was that he'd see the truth of Jon's birth as a means of revealing it to the audience, but not be able to tell anyone else cause he's alone north of the Wall.

Why didn't I think of this?

. . . . is too much. ... is appropriate