Vic Wertz

Vic Wertz's page

Chief Technical Officer. Organized Play Member. 23,991 posts. 2 reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist. 1 Organized Play character.


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Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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The new cards from We Be Heroes?, including these the role cards, are now available as a print-on-demand set from DriveThru Cards here.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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The new cards from We Be Heroes? are now available as a print-on-demand set from DriveThru Cards here.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Ron tells me "It has 3 chapters, each with 1 level of play. So you'll end at 8th level."

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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As these are UltraPro's products, not Paizo's, we have no insight into their distribution. We'll see if we can find anything out, though.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Are you using Chrome? Does it work if you put Chrome into incognito mode? If so, try this:

Paste "chrome://settings/content/all" into your address bar. You should see a bunch of websites you've visited. Type "paizo" into the search box at the upper right of that page (not the search box on your browser toolbar). Click on paizo.com, then click the "Clear data" and "Reset permissions" buttons. (If there were any other sites that came up when you searched for paizo—there probably won't be—click those two buttons for each of them too.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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You'll have a better chance getting rules questions answered in the Rules Questions forum.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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US Poker Size.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Marco Massoudi wrote:
This seems to indicate the end of the scenery sets as case incentives.

You've been following WizKids long enough to know that they like to try a lot of different things, and changing away from a thing doesn't always mean they won't go back to it.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Franz Lunzer wrote:

Last estimate for weight of the box was 3.5 pounds, can anyone confirm or update us on that?

I'm so excited for this product!

It ended up at 5.5 pounds!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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We are currently working on Kingmaker; you can read about it here.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Yep.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Our February products shipped to distributors later than usual because of a delay in customs, so it's possible that some retailers didn't get it prior to the release date. And when one of our products doesn't arrive by the time Amazon in particular expects it to, they usually respond by making up a new release date that has no apparent connection with reality, which they correct once the actual books arrive.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Added to FAQ.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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AMANDA!

(I'm not very good at this sort of thing.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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We've worked on this several times over the years. Core's rule that removes closed locations from play solved this issue... at least, it did during the short period while that rule also applied to older locations. But since we changed that in the Conversion Guide, it broke again.

It's kind of hard to get all of that discussion back into my brain, but I *think* that the solution we'd come up with just prior to Core may do the trick. That's the addition of this sentence to Check to See Whether the Villain Escapes: “If you fail to defeat a villain at a closed location while all other locations are closed, open a random other location and shuffle the villain into it.” (I believe this is now needed only when using certain older locations under the Conversion Guide, so this sentence would be added only to that guide.)

We didn't finish vetting that solution before it fell to the Core/Curse solution, though. The question is, are there any locations that break if they're reopened, or if they're permanently closed twice during the same scenario? And if there are, are they used in any scenarios that also have permanently closed locations?

(By the way, letting the villain escape back to the location it came from isn't viable because there's at least one situation where that can result in an unwinnable scenario.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Marco Massoudi wrote:
Now that Wizkids have announced their product, nothing keeps Paizo from doing their minis blogs.

It's true that WizKids' announcement means our window to talk about the set is now open... but unfortunately, the two people who would be best prepared to write that blog aren't available to do so. We're discussing possible solutions.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Adventurer's packs are now legal.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Zaister wrote:
Katina Davis wrote:
Zaister wrote:
I noticed on my downloads page that this volume—along with some other parts of this adventure path—was apparently updated on January 3, 2020. What has changed?
Hey Zaister, it looks like we updated the file on the 3rd because there were some issues with the Interactive Maps that needed to be resolved. I sent out a notification email to those with the PDF, but you have to opt in to notifications about digital asset updates on your My Account page to receive those. If you're opted in and still haven't been receiving them, let us know so we can investigate. Thanks!
Hi Katina, thanks for the information. I have checked my account page, and I have opted into all emails, so I should have gotten the update mail, but I haven't. I think there have been others recently, such as for the recent Gods & Magic update, and I didn't get an email for that one either. And yes, I have checked my spam folder. :) So, there seems to be something wrong with my account settings, I guess.

It's not just you. Looking into it!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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This title puts me in the mind of a disastrous appetizer order at Outback Steakhouse.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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It's up to WizKids to reveal when products are coming; all I can really say is that things are moving along!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Jeff Alvarez wrote:
Unfortunately they aren't like tribbles so Katina doesn't have a secret stash of them in her office.

So you're saying she does have a secret stash of tribbles in her office?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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All I can say is that we have only announced this year's releases through August. :-)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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I can only tell you about the Pocket Editions that have been announced thus far: the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition in February, the Curse of the Crimson Throne in May, and the Starfinder RPG Core Rulebook in July.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Roonfizzle Garnackle wrote:

Regardless of the noted undisclosed variables inherent in the data .... 68 of the top 100 slots being accredited to Paizo, is something I find encouraging.

I'm sure I'm not the only one!

Note that only 64 of those are actually Paizo products. The other 4 are Kobold Press products, which they have listed as Paizo because we handle their hobby distribution.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Right: Just because the card that is assigned as the danger happens to also be assigned as a closing henchman, that does not make the danger a closing henchman.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Tarondor wrote:
Vic, do you have a suggestion for where interested fans could seek out more complete information?

Assuming you mean complete information on RPG sales, there is no really good source for that.

The "best" source is probably ICv2's quarterly market report and rankings, the most recent of which is here, but a ICv2 pro subscription is now required to read it. (This thread on EN World provides a summary of their rankings from the last 16 years, though.)

However, there are many issues with that info that makes it less useful than you'd probably like.

First, it's compiled from "interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers," which may include some hard data, but I believe is mostly anecdotal.

Second, there are issues inherent to each of those three sources:
• Many retailers in our industry don't have POS or inventory systems that allow them to provide hard data, so you're going to get a lot of "gut" responses; further, some of them may have personal interests that cause them to downplay or exaggerate the value of some publishers. And even if they did get good data, I have no clue if their sources represent a statistically significant sample.
• Distributors most likely have good data on the portion of the market they handle, but many sales don't pass through these distributors—certainly, none of Paizo's direct sales do, and I suspect that most of Wizards' Amazon sales don't. And again, no clue if their sources represent a statistically significant sample.
• Many publishers (including Paizo) don't share our sales figures.

Third, there are no actual dollar or unit sales figures involved here, just a relative ranking. So even if they are correct about who's #1 and who's #5, there's no indication of how close or how far those companies are. (They do offer annual estimates of the entire market size; for the reasons above, my personal confidence in those numbers is very low.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Steve Geddes wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Amazon is a retailer, who buys from a distributor; in the case of Paizo's products, that's mostly from Diamond Book Distributors (though for reasons I have never well understood, they also buy Paizo products from another distributor who buys it from DBD).

Lol.

I’m struggling to think of any good reason for that. (International jurisdictions, maybe?)

I do know a little more than I mentioned in my last post: They generally place initial orders for new products with one distributor and reorders for existing products with another. (I'm guessing it's a volume thing, but I really don't know.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Dave2 wrote:
Diamond/Alliance is the biggest game distributer in North America. You could argue Amazon, but P2 has done well on it also.

Amazon isn't a game distributor. A distributor is an intermediate company that buys from publishers and sells to retailers. Amazon is a retailer, who buys from a distributor; in the case of Paizo's products, that's mostly from Diamond Book Distributors (though for reasons I have never well understood, they also buy Paizo products from another distributor who buys it from DBD).

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Justin Franklin wrote:
Just to be clear Paizo almost exclusively uses Diamond for Distribution to game and book stores.

This isn't accurate. Game and book stores are separate distribution channels. Diamond Book Distributors are indeed our primary distributors for the book trade, but in the hobby channel—which itself encompasses several different markets—Diamond Comic Distributors and Alliance Game Distributors are just two out of many distributors.

So it is correct to say that we "almost exclusively use Diamond" for distribution to bookstores, but for game stores, it's not at all correct. We certainly do good business with DCD and Alliance, but we sell plenty through other hobby distributors too.

Justin Franklin wrote:
So this isn't an across the industry sales totals, but definitely an interesting data point.

That is correct—and judging from your comments, I think it may be even more correct than you realize.

In order to understand the data presented in the original link, it's important to understand the distinction between Diamond Books, Diamond Comics, and Alliance Games:

• Diamond Book Distributors sells primarily to bookstores. That includes the few remaining large bookstore chains, small independent bookstores, and online bookstores, including amazon.com. In general, gaming is a pretty small part of these stores' business.

• Diamond Comic Distributors sells primarily to comic shops. In general, gaming is a small part of these stores' business (but it's likely to be bigger for them than it is for bookstores).

• Alliance Game Distributors sells primarily to game stores. In general, gaming is the majority of these stores' business.

The link above lists Diamond Comic Distributors' top games for 2019—not DBD's book trade sales, and not Alliance's game store sales. So it's just game sales into (mostly) comic shops. So while we're clearly doing very well with them, it is indeed a VERY narrow picture of the gaming marketplace.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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I've had fun reading the responses from a lot of Paizo employees who haven't been here for all 10+ years of Pathfinder (including our latest hire, who has been here only about 10 days—welcome, Maryssa)!

If you'd like to read an account of how those of us at Paizo at the time found out about Pathfinder, check out the annual recaps CEO Lisa Stevens wrote for Paizo's 10th Anniversary in 2012: 2007 (for the origin of the Pathfinder Adventure Path) and 2008 (for the origin of the Pathfinder RPG)!

(If you'd like to read the rest of the 10th Anniversary recaps, you can find them all here.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Lau Bannenberg wrote:
Gisher wrote:
The website inserts spaces into text that looks like offsite links to make things more difficult for spammers.
That explains SO MUCH.

(It's not actually about spammers—it's because long, unbroken chains of characters can cause some browsers to widen the text box to fit. Note that if you're using the correct URL BBCode, the URL will still work correctly.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Rysky wrote:
I don’t think Paizo had much say in where all it launched.

None.

I know that from the outside, it seems like it should be able to just work everywhere, but Amazon's international operations are manifold and complex; the Alexa skills folks can't just flip a switch and have it running worldwide.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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DungeonmasterCal wrote:
When Paizo stopped publishing Dragon Magazine they sent me two adventures (part of an early adventure path? I dunno). It's been so long and I never ran them that I've forgotten what they were. Was one about Sandpoint?

Looks like it was Rise of the Runelords 1 through 3.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Gorbacz wrote:
A Book with Guns In It

Like this one?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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tivadar27 wrote:
So I realized that at a quick glance, at least, it seems like at higher levels, combats will take longer than at lower levels. Probably a reversal from what we saw in PF1.

Reversal? In all the P1 campaigns I played, combat took much longer at higher levels.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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All our Pocket Editions are approximately 6.5" x 8.5". (This one will be about 7/8" thick.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Those are the product announcements I was talking about that we do not control. (In the past, Erik often timed his blogs to the date on which they chose to make those announcements.)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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HTD wrote:
Looks like the final back cover text is no longer being updated alongside the cover.

Yeah—our back cover text has become a lot simpler for many products, and now (more or less) assumes that you have the actual book in your hand, so it doesn't need to tell you things you can learn from the table of contents and so on. That means it's not always suitable for paizo.com product pages anymore, so there's a new step in the process: once the book has gone to the printer, we'll reevaluate the existing text on the website and specifically update it only if needed.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Yep!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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CorvusMask wrote:
Umm, oops? I can't edit spoiler tags into that post anymore.

Added.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Athos710 wrote:
Will there be future adventures with the full SF ruleset incorporated, or will this only use the beginner box rules?

Just to be clear, while the rules are adapted from the Beginner Box, it's a much simpler experience than that—but it is also a bit more sophisticated than a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

This isn't a tool to replace your GM in a full Starfinder campaign, or replicate all the options from a 500-page book; it's a new and different way to experience Starfinder gameplay.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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For each AP, we always sell fewer copies of the later volumes than the earlier ones, so we therefore also print fewer copies of later volumes than earlier ones, with the goal being to try to run out of all 6 volumes close to the same time. But even having historical data on dozens of APs doesn't guarantee we get those ratios right, and volume 6 does appear to have sold out before the first 5.

Our warehouse team will be doing a full inventory on our warehouse in January, so they could find some more, so maybe check this space a few times next month. No guarantees, though!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Yoshua wrote:
I've Searched. Going to start going through this post by post...

Please post rules questions in the Rules Discussion forum. Thanks!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Samurai wrote:
Whatever process or company they got to for the 2e printing seems to be different (and IMO worse) than their previous printers.

All of our hardcovers (and the majority of our softcovers) have been manufactured by the same printer for the last ten years. It's an unfortunate fact—but a fact nonetheless—that in a run of many thousands of books, some of them are going to have problems. If you have one of those problem children, please let our customer service department know, and we'll get you fixed up.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Steel Forged Games wrote:
I bought the core book off Amazon (from Paizo no less)...

While our books are readily available on Amazon, we aren't the seller for them—just the publisher.

To date, the only things we've sold directly on Amazon are the PF2 and Starfinder apparel lines you can find here. Any books or other RPG products are from other sellers (mostly Amazon themselves).

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Morph147 Korundo wrote:
are either of these coming to ps4 or switch?

Owlcat hasn't formally announced dates for console versions of Pathfinder: Kingmaker, but THQ Nordic, the parent company of the game's distributor, Deep Silver, revealed in a financial report that it's planned for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Thomas Seitz wrote:
Wait there was a third season???

It launched about 3 months ago.

Hey, it looks like you can watch all of Season 1 on VRV.co for free (albeit with advertising) now!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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crognus wrote:
Will every item include art?

Yes.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Kishmo wrote:
All of that, plus little sly winks and non-answers in various Twitch streams and forum replies, makes me believe there's exciting things on the horizon for Starfinder...

...but nothing we can tell you about for, oh, a week or so.

Oh, yeah... I almost forgot:
WINK

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Marc Radle wrote:

I forgot about this!!

Is it still on that odd ‘network’ ... Sieeso or something like that? Can you catch it on Youtube yet?

Seeso has been replaced by VRV. (Okay, it's really more complicated than that, but the bottom line is that Seeso is gone and VRV, which launched when it closed down, is where HarmonQuest and some other Seeso originals are now.)

Here's the HarmonQuest page on VRV.

It looks like Season 1 (and only Season 1) is also available on Vudu, but seasons 2 and 3 are exclusive to VRV.

(For reasons that are unclear to me, Amazon Prime also has a page for HarmonQuest Season 1 that says "Our agreements with the content provider don’t allow purchases of this title at this time," and each individual video is listed as "currently unavailable." I suspect that Vudu and Amazon had deals that didn't carry on when it went to VRV.)

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