Montalve's page

Hi there,

Sadly to inform that this order never arrived to its destiny, and it had passed more than a month since I asked these, since I have no #tracking number any way to know what happened to my book?

It was a gift for a friend's birthday :(

When we judges were still evaluating stories, one of my fellow editors, Robert Gresham, told me about an awesome idea. To call for an internal challenge of Horror Stories based on the Pathfinder Chronicles Gothic Horror Book.

We all grew quite exited about it, but between the contest and real life the challenge has been a bit slow and many stories are still on the works. Still... I would like to show you what we have been doing and which is ready for all to see: Pathfinder Chronicler's Horror Stories

I hope you all enjoy our hard work as much as we enjoyed writing all these stories.

Pathfinder Chronicler Writers (which inlcude some of our Contest Participants) as part of the Festivities had decided to launch a whole set of Horror Stories.

So if you have an story on mind, come with us, we want to hear it.

Hi there,

sadly I had been informed that I am about to be laid off, so could you please cancel my 2 subscriptions left? Its sad, I would have loved to have Winter Witch for december :(

Thanks.

First congratulations to those who won, for those who didn't, congratulations for trying, and keep writing. The only way to become better at it is doing it.

Now, before I offer any other feedback I want to explain how we scored. Ted came with a quite rational scoring form, which in the end saved us a lot of discussion.

I am sure I had commented elsewhere that the process was divided in scoring 4 aspects: Writing Ability, Topic Creativity, Originality and Overall Excellency. Each aspect was evaluated from 1 to 5 with a maximum per judge of 20 points.Since we were 5 judges the maximum became 100.

Ok, now that is all good and nice... what does it mean?

I took each story individually, without considering the rest or any other, just taking as example and benchmark what I had read in the past (specially "Before they were giants," which I was reading before the first entries arrived) and evaluated as following:

*Writing Ability:
This one is easy to point. I might not be native speaker, but I can see glaring grammatical mistakes. Here I also took into account how clear the ideas were read, the flow of the story, if it was confusing, the use of the language. Basically: "Does it read well and easily?" "Was the author clear on his ideas, or I think people might get confused?"

Here I look for ideas well defined, clear texts, fluidity of the story (I can't repeat this enough times).

I punished: wall text (its really hard to read), dialog of different characters in the same paragraph (its confusing), badly use of the narrator's point of view (1st person being omniscient, 2nd person is better for "play your own adventure" books), jumping between characters perspectives in the same fragment (which is annoying). Mostly.

*Topic Creativity:
This is about 2 things: a) The use of Golarion elements, b) and how you use them. The main question is "does this feel like Golarion?" Not just the Golarion I like, but Golarion in general, the vibrant world that brought us all together.

What I looked for was simply: I wanted to feel, taste, breath and see Golarion. It is not just to throw some names, it has to got the feeling, you know, the feeling you got when you read a new module, adventure path or chronicles book... you know its Golarion beyond the name in the cover.

What I punished? Disregarding of cannon, that it sounded more like general fiction or somewhere else fiction, I can understand small changes, mistakes or lack of knowledge... but not glaring ones that change the fundamental reality of the setting. I must admit I am a bit of a cannon lawyer, even while James said that some gonzo was ok :P

*Originality:
Lets be honest. There is NOTHING new below the sun. Every story has been already told. Just check your local library, blockbuster, videogame or comic or hobby stores... So what is Originality? Originality is to take those universal stories and told them in a way that the reader can relate to them and makes them forget that the story has already being told a thousand times. Make each story unique in their feel and identity, even if the story below has been told before.

The best example of this is the Avatar movie... it has no nothing new! yet millions loved it. It was not the story "Blue Pocahontas in Brave New World," nor the effects (we have seen them on too many movies, including Cameron's Aliens). It was Pandora, its feeling, the new creatures, and how the individuals reacted to them, in general what made Avatar an awesome movie... it was the sum of all its parts.

That is what I was looking for, interesting ways to use the elements at your disposition, how you presented them, were they interesting? was this cliché used in purpose? was it too gonzo?

What I punished? Gonzo and clichés for their own sake, lame and repetitive stories... and after the 10th story the Dragonlance syndrome

Dragonlance syndrome:
We had about close to a 3rd of the entries using the same formula: party meets, party finds goal, party fights, party either reach goals or stays in standby for the reader to decide.

I must admit, after the 10th of this I was tired, really tired, 5 of them in a row was death... even when they were well written, there is simply not mystery there, as a reader it was not about what will happen, just how it happen and how well written, yet... it was tiring.

*Overall Excellence:
This one is easy... it was basically "Do I dare pass this along to James Sutter?"

Overall Excellence is "does this deserve to be published as it is?"
Is not only about being well written, with something novel and good Golarion elements, its also "Will I want to read this?"

There are many stories, well written, using the right elements... but I wouldn't buy a book about them as I would hardly buy a book of "Golarions herbolary" which surely would be well written, had lots of Golarion elements and quite possibly quite original, but sounds mostly boring to hell! (not that I think they can make something interesting with an article about that)

So yes, if it was clunky, boring, uninteresting, or simply was not the top notch of the stories we want to publish in quality and presentation (don't worry about the general format, i can work with that) it went some points down.

I think I am fair... I don't have to like an story for grade it well. The thematic might not be to my liking but well written stories usually got a decent grade. But as a reader, I want to like something to keep reading it, no reader is under any obligation to read a bad story.

I think with this i give you all the generals about my own experience reading and reviewing this contest. And with this I invite you to ask for your personal feedbacks, either here or personally in my email: emontalve@pathfinderchronicler.net

I also invite my fellow judges to relate their own experience and give their own feedback, I am sure their experiences, as their tastes are different from mine and you all would be benefited by these all. I know I was.

By the way, if anyone adds yourself to the Pathfidner Chronicler forums, please send me or Zux an email to either zuxius or montalve @pathfinderchronicler.net just to be sure who adds himself, due to spam we have addes some measures of security and not alwasy know when someone goes in.

So in advance, thank you.

Ernesto I. Ramirez
Pathfinder Chronicler

both Wayfinder and Pathfinder Chronicler are promoting the Pathfinder Fiction Cotnest!

More info HERE!

To celebrate Paizo’s new Pathfinder Tales Fiction Line, Pathfinder Chronicler and Wayfinder proudly announce our first fiction contest for fans of Pathfinder Chronicles. Do you have “a knack” for writing fiction? Are you a Pathfinder fan? If so, fire-up your favorite word processing program and get your creative juices flowing, because this is the contest for you. A single winner will be awarded a $100 Paizo Gift Certificate and a reserved spot in the next Wayfinder fanzine, including a three page spread with extra art! Two runner ups will receive $50 Paizo Gift Certificate. If that wasn’t enough, none other than Paizo’s James Sutter (their fiction editor) will be one of the final judges. Currently he’s only reading solicited fiction from well-known authors with agents. What’s an opportunity like that worth to you? Head over to PFContest for details.

More information about the rules can be found here

evil indeed :P
now we mustwait for the PDF :P

anyway, awesome cover :D

"There is no peace for the wicked; there is no rest for the righteous." It’s the mantra of a secret order dedicated to banishing evil from the world at any cost, even if the cost is their souls...
White Shadows is the story of one of these sacred assassins and how are they perceived. Hope you enjoy it.
Its in 2 parts:

White Shadows, Part 1
White Shadows, Part 2

Any comments and feedback is welcome.

There are many ways in which a character is brough to life, from simple dice and notes to long stories, us roleplayers have a myriad ways of creating our special characters, those we are fond... maybe you devoted time in its creation, or instead youdeveloped him mostly as you leveled up. In the end its the same, either we get dead characters, or we get new friends we can be fond to play with. In my case one of my favorite characters is Jordan Fenix, her develpment took her time and I have played her in different campaigns. So do you have any stories about your own characters? why not tell us about them.

Other kind of development is the one we get by giving this characters a face, either we draw/paint them (not me, i couldn't draw if my life depended on it) or have friends or freelancers doing it :P

Here is Jordan's Fenix Artistic Development if any one is interested to take a look.

Besides the obvious of showing the art I have gotten for this my favorite character, it is also an invitation for those artist in development who are interested in helping us in Pathfinder Chronicler to develop this same thing for other stories.

We would be thankful if there are anyone who would be interested to help us illustrate scenes from A Havest to Remember or The Crowheart Legacy, or just characters from Pathfinders of Quadira or Scoundrels of Katapehs or any such stories.

Hereare some examples of art that has been born from the stories wrote in Pathfinder Chronicler

Artist are welcome to read this and show us how Paizo's and Paizo's fanbase have inspired you.

Due to an unfortunate expense that appeared today I need to stop most of the suscriptions, please Cancel all of them, except the APs and Planet Stories... I want to keep suporting them, leets see how long can i do it.

Hi, please could you cancel my Pathfinder Chonicles Suscription... I need to push some expenses low, I like it and hope to return next month, just right now while I like Cities of Golarion, I don't find like and impering need to have the Maps Folio

its not a known studio... but damn this looks awesome! The Tower of Time

Cosmo, could you please Cancel this subscription?

I need to push down some expenses and I still want to learn more from Golarion.

D&D Soda

please could you change the shipping address?
I was using a friend's address, andI thougt I changed it last time, maybe wth the change on servers it returned to it... but I didn't checked while doing the order...

the idea is to be using the address I have as prefered for my suscriptions, that is this:

Shipping Address
Ernesto I Ramirez Gomez
Mision Santa Ines #1
Hermosillo, SONORA 83224
Mexico

thank you very mcuh for your understanding and your time.

it appears only the suscription, as if the link has been changed, I was interested in seen when does one of the Chronicles books to see if it appears in september or October, but I get only the information on the Suscription.

Thanks.

Comic Strip Superstar

If any one is interested in this contest, here is an interesting and objective opinion, with pros and contras, but of course after all its each oens decision.

i think i got it clear, but here is more information Memorial in Lake Geneva

Monte Cook pointed this to me, Bruce R. Cordell pointed it to him

I have a little problem.
I received my suscripcion in an address in USA, but unfortunately that address just become unavailable... so I need to change it to my address in Mexico, but obviously this will change the shipping cost, do I need to do all the order again and cancel the others? or just make the change in "My Suscriptions" and your system recalculates it??

Right now my onlus suscription is PFRPG... but the plan is to add Companion, Module and Adventure Path... basicaly I was waiting for AP#5, but since the cost will jump overboard that was the idea...

does after getting the AP suscription, does the discount also apply to the PFRPG suscription?

really i need to plan for international shipping and I know i have few days.

thanks

hi
I tried using my store credit for this order, but it did't allowed me to use it.

Any idea why did this happened?

It would be interesting to know more about dead gods and what is left of their cults, as cultural backgrpound and because there are soem aspects that woulbe interest to lots of us to knows...

gods like: Aroden, Arazni, Curchanus, Vyriavaxus (ok ok demon), Thassilonean Dead Gods, etc

so Wes what do you say can Sean write this?

North Carolina's Sewer Monster

please add this when sending my Pathfinder PRG Suscription please, this would be the 2nd order to add to the shipping but they are smaller books compared to the Pathfinder RPG Core volume.

thanks

Hi Cosmo, Alison;

could you mix this with my Pathfinder RPG Suscription and my Paizo Order #1195145

thanks

Smurf Movie

because i believe in this forum they might be interested :P

Cosmo, Allison;

a favor, could you sent this order with my Pathfinder RPG Suscription? I know its would take some time, if its too much trouble, just tell me. thanks :)

Please... could you cancel this preorder?

Golarion is a world I love...

but unfortunately the rules... well why would I need a new book, when I would not use it, not even half of it becuase the changes made are not to my liking...

don't get me wrong... i do believe Paizo DOES a wonderful work... I just didn't received even half of what I hopped for... everything else I can get it from the books I did already use for the campaigns I am plaing.

Thank you for everything I will keep watching the new books about Golarion... because the setting I DO love , so see you aroudn

ok I do understand NO magic works within the mana wastes...

but there is mention of haunts and undeads in the Mana Wastes... so while I do believe no golem or other simialr construct would work within the Mana Wastes, we have undead... so at least those with a powerful connection to the negative plane can exist there (not tose created and controled by necromancy, mind you)

meaning... could a priest, otherwise cut form their magic, channel possitive or negative energy within the mana wastes?

what would be the official common sense? or what would people believe?

Cosmo, Allison, you must hate this as much or even more than me...

I had left Chronicles... please cancel it for the time being, I hope to return for Cities of Golarion

Thanks Paizo for the great products you make

Has anyone converted AE races (maybe classes) to Pathfinder RPG?

I am interested in weeing how the Litorian will work.

Any one had been interested to make a Conversion of Dragonstar to Pathfinder RPG?

after a long discusion yesterday we couldn't agree what to play... neither what I was interested in DMstering nor what they would agree to play...

but there was the interest to try Dragonstar... still one of the players think the evolker would become a techno monster with his power over electricity and other domains...

Maybe, yet, what do you think?

does this river already has a name?

I know that the River that cross along Skelt in Nimrathas is named "Touroundel" but then it joins with another in the moutain and froms this river that serves as a border between both countries... so its the same name or does it takes another name?

thanks.

can hardly wait for it to arrive.

exchange rate is crazy right now in my country and I am paying 50% more than I was paying less than a year ago :S

while I love the products I need to reconsider the approach... I hope things are looking a bit better... because I want to egt many of those books, and mostly becauseI want the AP5... but for the time being I must cancel as much as I can... I will try to keep Chronicles for the time being but that might change.

thanks.

Cosmo, Allyson a favor

this order has 2 copies of Pathfinder RPG and the Bestiary, the 2nd one was for a friend, but for the time being he needs to cancel his copy for personal reasons... so I will be grateful If you left 1 copy of each book in the preorder whiel I wait to see if Paizo is opening something to offer a free PDF with the buy... I would really need it :)

thanks

Dude what happened in Pathfinder Chronicler wasn't against you, you jsut had avery strange name when we wereattacked...suddenly in 3 days wehave 100 more members than we considered... and more importantly we werealready receiving spam... so we decided to take them down

unfortuntaly you fell in the crossfire, hope to see you there again

if anyone else wants to join, they are free to do it.

now the registration requiere Zux admision, this is for everyones safety and to have a cleaner slate.

if you or anyone want to come.. they are welcomed.

The Full Experimental Monte!

Get Monte Cook's latest book in print—with autographs for the first 500 copies shipped!

so, I am? :)

Congratulations to everyone who got to the next stage, and keep the good work, we are expecting to see a lot more of all of you.

For the rest, keep working, its the only thing left, you havebeen already be there, so you had the hard part right, its just a thing to keep working in it :)

Cosmo, Allison,

From this 2 orders I would like to cancel the adventure modules (Pathfinder Module B1: Crypt of the Everflame (PFRPG) & Pathfinder Module S1: Clash of the Kingslayers (OGL) Print Edition - respectively).

This is because since I am interested in the books and in having the PDF I would rather join into the suscription while I still can pay it :)

I would thank you 2 for this change.

Cosmo, Allison,

From this 2 orders I would like to cancel the adventure modules (Pathfinder Module B1: Crypt of the Everflame (PFRPG) & Pathfinder Module S1: Clash of the Kingslayers (OGL) Print Edition - respectively).

This is because since I am interested in the books and in having the PDF I would rather join into the suscription while I still can pay it :)

I would thank you 2 for this change.

Right now i am trying a ranger/cleric (ok not the most optimal but yes quite decent for hunting undead), but now that i won a new level in ranger and i am planing on getting feats... where the hell can I find what does Careful & Expert Targeting Does?

At least they don't appear on the Beta or SRD... any ideas will be welcomed

How common is to call a kid with the name of a deity, specially those who once where human like: Iomedae, Cayden and Norgorber?

use the names of Saints is in some places common for what I remember: Saint Alika in Korvosa for example.

For what I have read is quite common to name newborns in honor of heroes and saints (which is common in RL too), so how common would be to found chelexian girls with the name of Iomedae, or Taldans with the name Cayden?

real life examples give us thousands or millions of Jesus, Christ, Mary (Maria) or Jose (Joseph)

Don't know if in different cultures with different religions happens something like this.

video adding Samuel's Jackson Dialogue from Pulp Fiction

i really like the job of thisguy, to seea bit more check this page, of course... it might be biased, that is one of my favorite dialogs in that movie.

I understand that Order #1097994 haven't been sent yet, and while Iread last years that you were unable to do it... there is any chance that you mix this 2 orders?

in my case is not the shipping cost, but how they are delivered, a friend makes me a favor of receiving them and he does gladly... but he leaves a lot, and I don't want to cause much trouble to him.

thanks

more than tweeks, now that its used as Concentration i would like to see each of the 3 different paths of magic differently

spellcraft is right now an intelligence skill used to understand magic andits fundation ... so understanding the magic methods as to cast defensuively or not lose an spell...

ok this is good and nice for the wizard

the issue is... neither the cleric, the sorcerer, the druid or the bard see magic this way... this is only an aspect that the wizard uses, then why link all casting classes to it

nw yes.. some say "concencentratio come back!" which i will say no... why because most of this classes are not exactly high in Constitution... forcing an option on skills on them wherethey could use it 'better'

clerics has a connection with their gods and their magic comes from the understanding of such connection... Druids are soemthing similar but their connection is with the natural world

sorceres and bards struggle and understand power within themselves, crafting ther natural powers to their hims

my take on spellcraft is... inteligent bassed spellcaster use INT for spellcraft, Wisdom based classes uses WIS, and Charisma bassed spellcasters use CHA.

when identifying spells from their are they roll spellcraft nromally, but meeting with a different paradigm iwould give a penalty going from -5 to 10 depending how different and complicated (level) of such magic