Sir Oliver's page

Matt just described our guest as "Monte Cook big". Jay describes him as "epic". We talk with Jason Bulmahn, as well as Clinton Boomer, Liz Courts, Tim Nightingale, and Jonathan Shade. in Episode 81.

Sir Oliver wrote:

<Some incoherent ramblings of a deluded madman>

I have very little to add to Kae's magnificent reply to you, so I'll only say this: we don't breathe or worship your decadent empire's pathetic values or culture, and never have. As for "true-bred" nobility... just take a look at your own pale and drooling "Grand Prince" to see the results of centuries of inbreeding -- not that impressive, right? You can sit in your crumbling keeps and country mansions wrapped in your delusional dreams of the glory that was, but some day you'll awaken to the sound of marching Qadiran or Chelaxian boots, and then we'll see how long your "forever" will last!

How about our militaries then? Ours has the support of the legions of HELL ITSELF.

Seniority in age proves nothing.

We took one look at what blue-bloods do to a country (and that gaze set firmly on Taldor for just a second) and then murdered all so-called "True Nobles".

Yeah, if you define "important parts of the world" as "the crumbling wasteland that is called Taldor, which is Chelaxian for Laughingstock"

Nah, we talk Chelaxian - just like most of the inner sea region.

It's not the vulgarity of Chelaxian temper tantrums that bothers me but their repetitive dullness.

Abadar stays because of the money - and will leave as soon as that's gone, Cayden opposes your half-hearted attempty at slavery and suppression, Norgorber does his murdering in Taldor because he cannot hold a candle to even the lowest Chelaxian-trained assassin, and Shelyn is just being polite.

"Forever" being "until Quadira gets bored and decides to while away a Sunday afternoon by leveling some have-been imperialists."

I'd love to see them try!

Oh, let's not even compare the Majestrix to your poor, sickly and inbred "Grand Prince" Stavian! And just as we're blessed with such a wise and beautiful ruler, we're also blessed with the favor of Holy Asmodeus -- if you want to discuss the subject of holiness, I can always ask some of our priests to stop by your crumbling manor house...

(you can stop quivering in your boots -- I'm not going to send any devils to drag your sorry carcass to slav... er, willing life-long servitude to the Empire... YET!) ;P

I also greatly enjoyed your tongue gesture: I guess that is what passes for an insult among Cheliax nobility... Or was it Andoran pig-herders? Sometimes I mix those two.

As amusing as it might be, any discussion vis-a-vis internal quality of various nations of Avistan would merely represent unnecessary distraction from something that is obvious to all people of good breed: namely, that Taldor is dominating force throughout all the important parts of the world. You breathe our language and worship our culture while your sulphuric servants fear our gods: righteous Abadar, rapscallion Cayden Cailean, omnious Norgober and divinely beautiful Shelyn.

We don't have to fight you, nor those meddling Andoran fools. We only have to... wait you out. A decade here, a millenium there: it doesn't matter. Because such is the nature of the world: countries come and go but Taldor is forever.

Yes, our beloved Majestrix looks absolutely stunning there... her undying beauty outshines the sun itself! Truly, we are blessed, and envied by all the other nations!

Truly, this is a sad fate for what was once a productive part of our glorious empire. The sooner you realize that, you can stop with this foolishness and return into our warm embrace.

We understand one another, Sir Oliver. I thought you were new for a moment, but I see you just don't post often. By the way, [OT]** spoiler omitted **

You know that you can click on them to make them bigger, right?

-Lisa

Whew!

I'm okay with just a rash of small pics. But if they became a regular thing, I would be plunged into a bottomless sea of sadness.

I stumbled on this thread by mere accident and it made for a fascinating read. Ixancoatl's posts are especially interesting in a way with which they mention some things I wholeheartedly agree with (merits of improvisation, character development and role-playing in the RPGs) while still managing to be rude and arrogant. I really enjoy Paizo products and I couldn't care less about 4E and yet, reading this thread and others like it throughout this year made me realize that the reputation of Paizo Messageboards - as the best RPG company out there having downright annoying fanbase - is, unfortunately, justifiably deserved.

Recently, my sister bought me Scott Lynch's "Lies of Locke Lamora" - a swashbuckling urban fantasy set in the sprawling Venice-like city of Camorr. There's a thieves guild there ran by guy named Vancarlo Barsavi who rules the city's underground from a derelict ship and throws his victims to sharks through a trap door.

In "Curse of the Crimson Throne" we have a thieves guild ran by guy named Barvasi who rules his thugs from a derelict ship and throws his victims to giant spiders through a trap door.

Suspicious! :-D

But seriously, I wholeheartedly recommend this novel to anyone who liked CotCT or plans to run it. It's chokeful of inspiring bits and pieces about fantasy city heavily modeled after 17th century Venice. There are gang wars, water markets, thieves guilds, secret police, corrupted city guard, intrigues, merchants, plague ships, con artists and wizards. There are also numerous remains from ancient, incredibly advanced civilization upon which the new city was built throughout the centuries.

In parts, "Lies of Locek Lamora" almost sounds like "Curse of the Crimson Throne" novelisation which, personally, I found very cool. It is also supposed to be a first in the series of seven self-contained novel. Apparently, in the second book - "Red Sails under Red Skies", main heroes try to rob a casino in a pirate city-state. Golden Goblin in Riddleport, maybe? :-D

These were all made by one Kevin Yan. you can check out some of his other work here.

Actually... I think the choker illustration of Old Korvosa was actually by Julie Dillon. I'm not 100% sure, but it looks more like her art style than Andrew's...

Thanks everyone for the informations! :-)

Jason Engle is doing all of the art for the prestige classes, I believe. So yeah, that's his.

Pact Hall from "Tower of the Last Baron" was simply amazing!

Orcs at the Gates - this one and couple of others (Cinderstorm, Attack of the Jigsaw Shark, heroes leaving Korvosa...) were all made by same artist, but it doesn't say whom.

Quarantine - I love this picture! I love chokers crawling on the rooftops! :-)

Every piece of admitedly awesome artwork leaves me grasping for a feeling of setting. :(

This way, for each campaign I run or play in we can chose a different mini-setting - Ustalav, Varisia, Mwangi Expanse, Land of the Linnorm Kings, etc. - and each time we'll be able to explore a whole different feel and style of a campaign with the same book.

Didn't recognise his work without his fantastic light play.

Paizo really has some incredible artists working for their products. So far, Ben Wooten and WAR! are my favorites.

I'm just looking at the character sketch for Duelist prestige class and I wonder who drew it. It looks amazing!

Keep on the good work, Paizo crew - you've been most inspiring in the last year I've been following Pathfinder blog. But it's neither the rulebooks nor the gaming products that will "kill", "tyrannize" or keep my game "alive" - that's the sole province of DMs and players I game with. For better and worse, I'm far more dependent upon them for a good, fun game then any single gaming product I've seen in the last eight years or so. Neither Paizo nor WotC cannot change that.

I am late to this party, but may I please vote this thread as the best in gaming forum history?

Especially puzzling when you consider the latest female character in the series.

...

Edit:

No matter! I found it myself. :-)

Whoa. Yeah. Both of those are awesome. Saved for future reference!

The whole story of establishment of Sankt Peterburg is in the best tradition of mad European kings: Peter the Great invited engineers from all over Europe to help him build his new capitol while thousands of serfs worked and died draining the marshlands. Using all this for Karcau could mean adding a bunch of unmarked graves and hundreds of really, really angry undead.

As for "City of Saints and Madmen", grey caps gave me a whole new perspective on Myconids, using weird biotechnology to mutate and kill existing population of Ambergris with spores, mushrooms and underground creatures.

It's both. It's THIS on the surface with THIS and THIS below. Overall, Karcau is a terrible spot to build a city, but ages of tenacious building and clever architecture have channeled the waters of the nearby lake and underground water into channels both underground and on the surface, though the nearby lake and its underground reservoir still exist.

So, basically, on the surface we have artificial canals that channel the swamp waters into the lake Prophyiria. But, underneath the cellars and canals themselves are tunnels, reservoirs, sewers, catacombs and natural caves. I can totally see tihs as a metting place for Urgathoa's cultists or a hiding spot for the entire underground "kingdom" of ghouls plotting revenge on the surface world.

I love the contrast of beautiful city and fetid swamps around it. This could also mean Karcau has a brutal history in the vein of Sankt Peterburg: Soividia Ustav's mad dream of building an Oppara of the North, a City of Canals smack middle in the swamps just so that Ustav can show those filthy Khellid barbarians how superior Ustalav's culture truly is.

Also, Karcau now reminds me a bit on Jeff VanderMeer's city of Ambergris from his story collection "City of Saints and Madmen". The only thing missing from it is Festival of the Freshwater Squid, wars between factions representing various philosophical and artistic beliefs, and evil myconids skulking in the back alleys and deserted palaces overgrown with plants and mushrooms.

Ooooh, I'm so going to use Karcau now! ^_^

3. Extending the above, when I expect to use similar critters over multiple levels I do not bother creating stat blocks from scratch. I just use an old stat block and add more levels. If I have 1st level goblin rogues I just add levels to them rather than creating 3rd level goblin rogues from scratch and just repeat as needed.

4. For spellcasters, in addition to the advancing stat block I will prepare an advanced spell list ahead of time with a variety of base spells I want to use, then refer to that list as needed. That way I do not have to constantly look up the entire spell list every time I need to add more.

6. Although redundant, use discipline and stick to the core rulebooks. One of the easiest ways to turn NPC creation into a 10 hour fight with yourself is to just start looking in every single sourcebook for some obscure spell, feat, prestige class, or other gimmick. Sticking with the basics for...

I'm just reading again a bit about Karcau in Campaign Setting:

Known for the widely respected Karcau Opera, the canal-riddled Village of Voices has a tradition of musical genius. Built on the site of a vast underground lake, the city stands upon a labyrinth of submerged tunnels and underground channels.

Errr... I'm not sure what does this mean. Is Karcau like Venice - built on hundreds of small islands and in shallow water? Is it like Venice, but there is another lake underneath the first one? Or is it built on solid ground like normal cities but the sewers underneath it connect to the vast natural network of caverns, tunnels and underground lake? :-o

Now if you could just see your way to answering my query which I recently posted on the Campaign Setting thread regarding the small matter of who exactly is the current Count of Ulcazar, if a recent Count gave up his title to go into the church?.... :D

"Although he’s forsaken one title for another, Bishop Senir rules the sparsely populated county of Ulcazar, discouraging all visitors"

The way I say it, there are three explanations for this:

1) Historically, medieval Church used to own and govern lands and cities. Having an entire county ruled by Pharasman monks and clerics, in such a Slavic/Central Europe inspired country wouldn't be much of a stretch. Just call it bishopric instead of county.

2) As a cleric of Norgober, Senir is quite used to lies and duplicity. He could easily pretend to abdicate the noble title in favor of one of his cousins only to keep him firmly under his thumb, ruling in all but a name.

3) Finally, Ulcazar is the least habitable and least populated part of Ustalav. For the most folks, it probably doesn't even matter who rules it and what is his official title.

Creating a sixth level PC today reminded me what I disliked the most about being a DM. When game mastering, I love creating my own adventures: stories, NPCs, villains, interesting locations and such. But, as much as I enjoy that, I dislike the math part: the number crunching and rules-browsing where I have to choose what kind of feats and magical items will enemy mooks have or how do the enemy's individual spells work like.

If it were only a single NPC I had to build and check, that wouldn't be much of a problem. But with a whole adventure, I often wasted more time building it then we actually played it! Figuring that I'm obviously doing something wrong, I gave up from DMing for about a year and a half.

But DMing is a nasty itch that I'd love to scratch but not before I seriously reconsider my approach to the game preparation.

I was thinking of running a medieval fantasy game. I have access to D&D 3.5 & 4th Editions and WFRP 2nd Edition rules. From them all, WFRP turned out to be the simplest to run, but this was also in large part due to me running sessions with very little combat encounters. The moment I started planning (and later, running) my first Warhammer dungeon, it was back to the world of number-crunching: stats for enemies, monsters, traps, etc.

So, let's say you have D20 SRD and core rulebooks. Let's say you're creating your own adventures - not just because you prefer running your own stuff but also cause you don't really have much of an access to official adventures. What kinds of shortcuts would you use to ease up a preparations for a session, an adventure or even a campaign?

I'd be perfectly satisfied with a single module taking place in Ustalav while a gazetteer in the the vein of the upcoming guides to Taldor or Osirion would be a dream come true.

Just today I borrowed a copy of "The Skinsaw Murders" from a friend of mine. I'm seriously thinking of adjusting it's plot a little and simply dropping the entire adventure into Ustalav. From what I've heard of "Carnivale of Tears", it would also fit nicely.

I can only say... YAY! YAY!

Wyrd Edizioni is going to translate Pathfinder in Italian, starting with Second Darkness, to be presented at Lucca Comics and Games 2008.

A good news for all the Italian Paizoners, I guess. :-)

Although, I can't but love the horrible pidgin English we use in our Croatian D&D sessions where all the giants are Džajants with capital "DŽ", two-handed sword is referred to as zwei-händer and seemingly normal Croatian sentences are punctuated with spells, hitpoints, attack bonuses and XPs. Hell, in my group we are more familiar with Anglo-Saxon names for medieval weaponry then our own historical terms for them. :-)

I'll throw in my two cents about interesting locations I was thinking of using in such gothic adventures.

1)We all heard about haunted houses or castles. Haunted monastery might also be a cool idea, but I fell in love with the concept of a haunted windmill after seeing this picture.

2) Stone circles and monoliths - pretty self-explanatory, really. :-)

3) Monastery on the lake - I like the image of a small monastery isolated on a misty lake surrounded by forest. This might be a great place to locate an order of wise, book-studying monks that fight evil. On the other hand, this could also be a good hideout spot for evil order pretending to be priests of a good or, at least neutral deity.

4) Cursed village - this is a great idea I stole from Warhammer. A village situated in the middle of the forest hidden by the bushes and trees that overgrew it. It's residents mysteriously disappeared decades ago, leaving the village temple's doors and windows barred and shut.

5) Dead Swamp - centuries ago, this was a field were barbarians buried their chieftains. Now, this is a forest half-flooded with swamp waters where scrags hunt the unwary and restless dead guard their ancient tombs.

6) Crossroads - old one but good one. Excellent place to make witches dance in the moonlight, people to sign their contracts with a Devil and road robbers to be hanged (except that sometimes they come back to life).

7) Caves - seemingly ordinary cave might hide tunnels leading deep into the Darklands. Maybe that passage was sealed centuries ago but a recent earthquake opened it once again. And now, there's a horrible underground monster mutilating the cattle and villagers, exiting the cave only during the moonless nights.

8) Sewers, tunnels and caves - great hiding spot for ghouls who secretly plot and scheme underneath unaware humans, preying upon them in the dark cellars and dreaming of the day they build their ghoul kingdom on the surface.

9) Cursed family - again, an old one. I'd make one of the their members a werewolf obsessed with hunting. His sister is a vampire seductress. Their father is an old wizened mad scientist - necromancer, maybe even a lich. His brother is an obese, slimy, decadent priest, possibly in a incestuous relationship with his vampire niece.

Hey! Me too! Good taste. ^_~

Did you perchance worked on it's entry for Campaign Setting? ^_^

First of all, thanks for the input. Now, just a couple of quick comments with my own brainstorming included.

You might find the occasional priest of Erastil in the more rugged/folksy areas like Amaans and Barstoi, or even a missionary of Iomedae here and there.

Calistria's worship in decadent places like Caliphas and Lozeri

Abadar's faithful anywhere you want some religious intolerance.

I want to set Barstoi up as the place for "Puritanism" driven by a few evangelists of Abadar, Iomedae, or Erastil... not sure who yet...

Karcau or Caliphas (or even Ardis) might have an "Eyes Wide Shut" cult of debauched elite who get together to do terrible things.

Versex is where you'd find eerie cults to things like the Moon, spirits of dead family members or hanged villains, The Lurker in the Woods, The Black Noll Witch, or The Drowned King.

Amaans probably has some fey, real witches, and druid lodges.

In Virlych you'll find your undead cults.

So far, I'm thinking of some kind of nature spirit worshiping cult that puts a strong emphasis on sadism and orgies. The cult is more sophisticated and decadent in the cities ("Eyes Wide Shut") and much more brutal and eerie in the wilderness (sort of like "The Wicker Man" or even "Straw Dogs"). Witches might be a nice additions to the cult. Hell, some sort of weird fey creatures and pacts made with them might be in order, too.

The simpler version would be to use a Urgathoa's cult working hand in hand with ghouls hiding in the city sewers and natural caves in the forests. Together, they might dream of building a ghoul-ruled kingdom, making the Immortal Principality, truly immortal.

Although it has not been defined yet, Lepidstadt has a university, and quite a good one at that. Its interests are based in science, medicine, history, and real knowledge of the natural world. At the same time, Karcau's conservatory and opera is a bastion of education and elevation in a dangerous land.

After finishing my reading of Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, I found myself mostly drawn towards Ustalav. I've been thinking about a gothic horror - themed adventures and campaign for couple of years and I even ran them for a little while in WFRP system. Ustalav seems as nice place for such things as the Old World while also giving me an excuse to stick with D&D rules and make PCs a bit more heroic.

But, despite four pages entry about the Immortal Principality, I found myself looking for some rather basic info which I could really use for a game. Aside of that, I started this thread to get my creative juices flowing once again. :-)

1) What should be typical races and nationalities of Ustalav? For now, the only ones that come to mind are Varisians and maybe some half-orc (from Belkzen) and Khellid (from Numeria) minority. But what about other ones like - for example - Chelaxians, Taldorans or Dwarves?

2) What deities should be appropriate and usual for Ustalav? OK, so we know people there mostly worship Desna, Pharasma and - from the evil ones - Urgathoa. But what other deities could be popular there, aside of these three?

3) Related to the previous question, how does this religious observance usually work? Do people run around with pitchforks and torches burning witches in the name of Desna (that seems kinda unlikely for that religion, at least to me) or do they simply stick to their own superstitions and religious rituals hiding in their houses?

4) Any interesting ideas for evil cults for Ustalav, aside of Urgathoa? Hidden monks of Norgober in the Monastery of the Veil are, for example, splendid idea, precisely because they're recognizably evil, while still avoiding the classic undead cultist schtick.

5) Finally, I'm trying to think of a nice thematic good organization set in Ustalav. So far, the best idea I've came to are the paladins of Iomeade... except that they're actually set in Lastwall and only occasionally patrol the SW Ustalav.

Sil gives Sir Oliver a big, furry foot to the buttocks as he beats a hasty exit.

I fail at anarchy. :-(

This show was brought to you by Sir Oliver: a user with way too much free time on his hands, especially on Sunday evenings (it's 23h over here at my place).

Also, I totally think someone should do a Galt faction for Pathfinder Society. Unfortunately, Galtians (Galts?) seem to be too much stuck up with their own internal mess to pay any attention to the outside world. 'Tis a shame, really. Their anarchists would make a wonderful addition to the already complicated politics of the Inner Sea region. :-)

<curtain>

Sil continues to silently play over the man's words, "strenuous...virility," before finally taking his pudgy hand in her small, but work-calloused one. "Yes, let's talk of revolution. Tell me of the blow you plan to strike against Taldor and Cheliax."

Signed:

Citizen of Galt

Death to the oppressors! Long live the Revolution!

<sets off the infernal engine>

Signed:

Citizen of Galt

Better grave than a slave!

<sets off the pyro-kinetic device>

Signed:

Citizen of Galt

Sil runs her mind over the man's words, "private...grows...expands," sure that there is an innuendo hidden in there somewhere. Finally she climbs down from her stool top, makes her way to Sir Oliver, and stares up at him. "Okay, let's talk."

Signed:

Citizen of Galt

And yet you have no bones about spreading lies about the proud nation of Andoran. I also note you are 'Sir' Oliver. It would appear the Galtan Revolution has merely changed the face of its masters. When you desire to live free from the oppression, join us, Oliver.

The lovers of freedom must stand together, lest our enemies pick us off one by one.

Signed:

Citizen of Galt

Sil stops her dancing and shoots Sir Oliver a glare mastered during her youth as a Chelaxian lady, "and who invited this pompous buffoon to our party?"

Signed:

Citizen of Galt

I'll not be lectured by the resident of a land that slaughters its own children every few years!

Singed:

Citizen of Galt.

My fellow Andorans! Who among you is ready to make yourselves known! Gather together and raise a cheer for independance, for soon we will overthrow our hated enemies and spread the word of freedom to their subjugated peoples!

Even if that wasn't the case, Andoran's proposed revolution is destined to fail. Like a poisoned seed that grows into a stunted plant, so did Andoran taint revolutionary ideals by pardoning the reactionary leeches of the so-called "nobility". Burghers, merchants and other lumpenproletariat couldn't give up on their inbreed servility so they left their former tyrants alive and free.

So, look not towards Andoran to lead you, but to the north east where the true flame of freedom burns. Revolution will come, Citizens, and it will be a Glorious one.

Signed:

Citizen of Galt

Ya know, with the inordinate amount of mental health care professionals and counselling opportunities in our world today, I am frequently dismayed when some people do not take advantage of them.

;-)

A conundrum! :-D

I will no longer be continuing with any discussions here at Paizo. I am disgusted by the treatme-

More Eva please. She is pure AWESOME!!!

Then you won't have to hear from us ever again, everyone gets what they want. :D

Don't discount video games as well.

These are great, Trent! I love how you use only one Iconic per wallpaper, avoiding to make them overcrowded.

Is there any chance of you making wallpapers of other iconics who didn't got theirs. I'm talking about Paladin, Monk and Half-Elf Sorcerer? Of course, any other monster, NPC or Iconic would be totally welcome.

I don't know was this already addressed here before, but is there any chance for us to witness the walpapery goodness of WAR iconics for the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path? :-)

You don't want to fight too often. Combat is far more lethal and healing beyond a couple of wounds is not readily available. Social interaction I think is a large part of the game, the scheming of Nobles etc, Charm and Bluff come into that a lot, knowledge skills also handy

Are you starting in the Empire or where?

start thinking about what your going to do for mages that max their level and start wanting to be higher level casters

Characters would start in their first careers and I have no idea how long or how often will I actually run the game.

have you thought about how your going to run combats;

when I get a chance, i will ask a friend of mine what rules questions came up so you get a preview; i have a bud who tracks that kind of stuff and can probably tell me off the top of his head; we played for along time through lots of advances and used almost every skill and spell in the book; will see if I can come up with some you might want to preview how your going to handle.

As previously mentioned , combat is "swingy" , from easy NPC kill to Player death its only one confirmed critical hit away.

Investigative and player oriented scenarios work best - have the players map out their career path and you\ll have lots of of story hooks. Think call of ctulhu in the middel ages:)

Economic systems - guns and weapons in general are ridiculusly expensive - enabling the players to sell their own and their victims weapons and buy themselves out of trouble, not very heroic:)
We divided weapon cost by 10 and it helped.

Go easy on skilltests- a starting PC has about 20 - 40 % chance of success with an unmodified roll.
Fear tests - see skill tests- they make combat with monsters even more random - use sparingly.
Insanity- players rarely enjoy being told how to play their charachter- you might consider upping their IP total or use minor disorders before they eventually go insane:)

liberfanatica.net has fan made rules you might want to check out, and blackindustries.com have free scenarios - enjoy!

Ever since I finally got core rulebook for WFRP 2nd Edition, I've been toying with various ideas for adventures and a mini-campaign I could run. I'm going through the rules now and I would like to know are there any glitches or peculiarities of the system I should be aware of.

For example: I know that the combat in WFRP is more lethal compared to D&D, but how lethal is it? On average, how many fights in a day could party of beginners possibly take? On the other hand, I'm also interested in how useful are the rules for social interaction, knowledge or research skills.

Then there are careers for which I'm not really sure how balanced are they: it seems to me that mechanically the player of Noble or Soldier has a definite advantage over Rat Catcher - which is all the more reason to be interested into practical in-game value of various skills and talents.

So far, I like what I've seeing from WFRP: the rules seem refreshingly simple compared to the D&D 3.5: far less magic and magical items to take into account, for example. On the other hand, basics of the combat seem quite intuitive and similar to D&D, which is great 'cause it means less times for new players to adjust.