Zeugma's page

Harpies were already covered in "Mythical Monsters Revisited." But the book doesn't go into new harpy weapons and aerial combat maneuvers - that would be cool!

How about "Races with cloacae that reproduce by laying eggs of Golarion"?

But when will James Jacobs have time to write the dinosaur-race book?

Makes me wonder...are there dinosaur variety lizardfolk?

My dad "helping" me install a driver on my computer. >:(

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History documentaries (good ones) are really expensive. Even a single historical photograph that is "public domain" material costs money: there are archive fees, research fees, and lots of due diligence from the legal department to make sure the image can be used. And that's just one photo!

Also, the "easy to watch" factor. Sad to say, but people would rather look at fools making fools of themselves than get interested in history that actually matters, because doing that takes thought and reflection.

Grey Lensman wrote:

sunbeam wrote:

Why and how did it get this way?

Is it a case of it being cheaper to make shows like this? I'm talking about the reality based shows.

Sadly, it's the 'cheaper' part that I think is the answer. A reality 'star' commands almost no salary at all unless the show becomes a big hit. Mostly, they are hoping to get famous. Few to no sets, plus low paychecks for the cast combine to make a program that costs substantially less than a sitcom, drama, or even a documentary. If a program costs 10% of a standard show, then even if it gets half the ratings the network has still made a large jump in profitability.

This is the cold hard truth of it.

Coupled with the fact that people actually watch those shows and enable this downward spiral, it gets downright depressing.

The only exceptions seem to be those networks that have a "labor of love" thing going for them. Again, TCM is the only one that comes to mind for that.

TCM is great, and I think of it as the "Film History" channel.

I really enjoyed this story, even the gross undead feast, and didn't see the double bluff, though I did figure Norret had something up his sleeve (so to speak). The only thing missing is there was no picture of the feast Norret painted. I think that would have been more fun to illustrate than Nella. ;)
I like Orlin as a narrator, but I also hope that we get another story where KAM uses Norret's voice, too. They have their own points of view on things so it would be interesting. It would also be cool to see Rhodel as a narrator some time.

Also, I second (third?)the KAM Pathfinder novel.

Yay! Another Norret story! It's always a special day when I can enjoy his company!

Y'know, Seelah the paladin has been stated as being very interested in redeeming Seltyiel and treating that as a long-term project.

Just throwing that out there. ;)

Are you proposing Seeltyiel slash-fic?

The area of Katapesh staring the Elven Druid from the story in Legacy of Fire.

I second this motion! (but Channa Ti is half-elven; her father is a Mwangi elf and her mother is Mwangi) Not only do I want to see more of Channa Ti, but I want to know more about her rift with her father and why she chose to join the Pathfinders.

Awesome. The conclusion leaves an ambiguity about Ascaros's decision, and what its consequences will be, that fits in perfectly with the moral grayness of Nidal. I am really looking forward to reading Nightglass, now!

Either way, this leads to some troubling* questions concerning ZK's hands-off policy towards his sister.

Is he setting her up as a fresh sacrifice, is he keeping her out of the equation so that she won't be touched by the coming something, is she being left to be the sole sane witness to the dark new world he may be ushering in, is he leaving her untouched and possibly immune to the control of whatever changed him because a voice in his soul is screaming "PLEASE PLEASE STOP ME"?

*A troublingly common word when discussing Zon-Kuthon and/or kytons.

Shivers. Now THAT is creepy!

(the "wants his sister to redeem him" angle is cool too, and I could see that tied in to an epic-level campaign)

I can't wait for tomorrow's chapter! I'm really looking forward to how Mericel envisions the Hovels. Are we going to see Leper's Gate? It's like a field trip (a very horrid, soul-crushing field trip).

Ira Levin also wrote "light" science fiction in the '70s:
This Perfect Day (1970)
The Stepford Wives (1972)
The Boys from Brazil (1976)

I think one of the better "new psychology" school of sci-fi books is Frederik Pohl's Gateway, circa 1977.
Link:
Gateway

Oh yeah, and they also made it into a video game.

What were the major ideas of sci-fi published in the latest 60's and 70's? I remember the Cold War and supercomputers but that's about it. Any books you'd recommended written in that era that exemplifies the trends of that time?

Sci-fi was becoming psy-fi, with Le Guin and Ellison leading the way, probing our psyches via alternate modes of being (but hasn't sci-fi always already explored those things?) While <i>Locus Awards</i> isn't the end-all of sci-fi, their list of short sci-fi from the '70s includes:

"The Death of Dr Island" by Gene Wolfe,
"The Day Before the Revolution" by Ursula K. Le Guin,
"Jeffty is Five" by Harlan Ellison,
"The Persistence of Vision" by John Varley.
These selections from the winners in: "The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy," Charles N. Brown and Jonathan Strahan, eds. (New York: Harper Collins, 2004).

What a powerful conclusion! In the end it was Seyusth's story, even though it starts out from Ameyanda's point of view; up until the last section I was unsure how things would turn out. I'd like to know more about Ameyanda's background and how she became a warrior. We got some of her background in this story, but I feel there is a lot more to it...Also more dinosaurs would be appreciated! :)

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But ... he is the ruling pharao, just as Grand Prince Stavian III is the ruling emperor of Taldor (and Charles is the Prince of Wales as sovereign over this county, not as son of Queen Elizabeth). "The Ruby Prince" is something like a titular name, just as his father was the Crocodile King.

Edit: I just scrolled up and saw that I just answered a post before. But it's true none the less.

Thanks Lanx, for the clarification on the title. It still bothers me though. I understand the Prince of Wales is a sovereign over Wales, but in the future he will be king of England and his title as Prince of Wales won't be as important as his greater-scope sovereignty. I just find it odd that, in Golarion, the Pharaoh would choose to go by his "lesser" title rather than the more-expansive title of Pharaoh. Stavian may have political reasons for doing so, because he needs to unify fractious Taldor (the same reason Prince of Wales is such a "hot" title for heirs apparent in England, to quell Welsh nationalism), but Khemet doesn't seem to have those problems.

I'm really enjoying this story and I can't wait for the next installment!

I love the map. Keep up the good work!

I apologize for teh mix-up! I will get the proper book shipped out to you as soon as possible. Please feel free to keep and use the misshipped book with our apologies for the mistake.

Thanks,
cos

Thanks, Cosmo!

I just now had the chance to open the package after walking my dog, and lo and behold it is the wrong book! It is The "Blood of Fiends" book and not "The Midnight Mirror" which I ordered. I am upset with Paizo. The order/shipment form that came in the envelope has the right information, yet it is not the right book.

It came today! (I knew I should have been more patient). Thank you for the info about the USPS delivery confirmation number. I will keep that in mind for future packages.

Occasionally a package will not get scanned when it passes out of the hands of UPS Mail Innovations and into the hands of the USPS. When this happens, we can no longer track it until it reaches it's final destination, as we do not have the USPS-obtained Delivery Confirmation number.

However, this does not mean that there is anything wrong with your package. It will most likely show up at any time now. Please give it the rest of this week, and if you still have not seen it by the end of next week, let me know and we'll see about getting you a replacement shipment.

Thanks,
cos

I used the Tracking link for my order, and I saw UPS tracked the shipment from UPS up to the transfer to the Los Angeles PO on April 18, but so far no package has arrived. The projected delivery date is today (the 23rd). I'd like to contact my PO about the package, but I do not know what to say. Do I use the Package ID UPS uses when contacting USPS? Should I give them another day for delivery before contacting them?

SEELAH! <3 <--Heart!

Thanks to the link, I stayed up for 2 hours reading the whole thread. A lot of good points were made, and viewpoints aired. I especially liked how a lot of artists and art directors were involved in the discussion. I feel the people who discounted the art, arguing gamers should rely on their own imaginations, do not realize the effect art can have. Not everyone is affected by art to the same degree, so for some art really isn't important, but for some people it can be a prime motivator of interest; hence why so many companies spend money on billboard advertising.

I'm reading "Neuromancer" by William Gibson. It feels a bit dated, but I really like Gibson's style.

Now, where I'm really f!+*ed is when the drugs are too strong. For example, I just had my dose of methylphenidate raised from 18mg to 27mg. For a normal person, this would be a negligible increase, but for me, it's the difference between being able to focus slightly better and being awake for days on end, hallucinating, and vomiting uncontrollably. At this point, the only thing I can do is ride out the withdrawal symptoms and wait until my next doctor's appointment, because under the new regulations, I can't re-fill the prescription until the original period of time in which the prescription would have been taken has passed.

Given that this is free internet advice from a stranger with no background in medicine: Why not just get a pill cutter and cut the dose to something manageable? Not ideal, but better than being sick every time you take your meds.

Something else that sux: having your laptop (with all your essay notes, and the essay due next day, and not backed up) stolen at the bus stop.

Yeah, I'm NOT lovin' the god of thieves right now. May Abadar smite him in holy wrath!

palmeye I didn't even think about PathfinderWiki. Thanks for the head jolt! :)

On talking to Timitus about getting it into Wayfinder, I just thought for certain that something this large would be out of the question to turn in, especially since it probably breaks the rules on canon*. And this might be irrational, but thinking about going that way makes me feel a little guilty, like I'd be asking Wayfinder to be my vanity press publisher.

*specifically** spoiler omitted **

Again, thanks.

If you are worried about it being too big for Wayfinder, why not break your ideas into a series of smaller articles, that could be published over a spaced-out period? I looked at your spoilers, and it looks like you could get 5 or 6 separate articles out of your ideas. As for non-canon, I'm not sure of the Wayfinder policy, but things like alternative stats doesn't sound horribly "non-canon" & violate-y; it's the kind of stuff the old Dragon magazine used to do all the time.

Happy Erik Mona day, from California!

Zeugma wrote:

I want to buy this book just because there is a CHIMERA on the cover!

I'm pretty sure that's a mock-up cover; I think that chimera art is from an interior piece in Kingmaker #4: Blood for Blood.

That said, I can personally guarantee that the chimera section is gonna be AWESOME!!! :)

So what you're saying is that the real cover is going to have two chimerae fighting Amiri? Yay!

I want to buy this book just because there is a CHIMERA on the cover!

James Jacobs wrote:

I very much doubt [cannons will] be available for PCs to use on other ships. Especially since we'll be focusing more on boarding action type ship to ship battles.

I would hate if this proves to be a missed opportunity to add gunpowder into the game with both barrels, as it were.

Never underestimate the creativity of PCs! They can McGuyver or steal almost anything if they put their minds to it. I once had a PC make "moonshine" liquor using an old suit of armor and some rotted bannanas.

I lean toward Zuxius's (and Montalve's later) response to the question of profanity. I am not opposed to it, but I much prefer if an author can use it creatively, instead of using time-worn or contemporary swear words. For example, someone using words that are profane towards a specific Golarion deity would be entertaining and contextual:
"Wine to water!" could be an "oath" in Cayden Cailean's church, or "What a blunted sting!" could be an insult in Calistria's temple.
(Maybe those are not the best examples, but you get the idea: context is important and finding creative ways to work around profanity can often yield better results than using swear words that we hear every day).

For once I started something in advance and actually got through a few drafts before submitting :-D

I just have to say, 1500 words is rough! I don't think I've ever written anything that short, and regardless of whether or not I advance to the next round, I count the completion of my story under the word count maximum as a personal victory.

I am so pleased! Microfiction is the "next big thing" among my MFA-type friends. It is well suited to internet publishing and time-pressed readers' tastes. It's a challenging form of fiction, so kudos to you. Also, kudos for your drafting! Editing can be one of the most satisfying parts of writing.

The Eldritch Mr. Shiny wrote:

Sanakht Inaros wrote:

The Virginia Workers Comp Commission. It's been 8 months and they STILL can't figure out how to spell my name. Letters, calls, emails, and they INSIST I don't know how to spell my last name. I didn't realize there were that many ways to misspell my name.

If it exists, it can be misspelled. For example, my father's name is Chris, and he frequently gets bills addressed to "Christ."

Bet he's not getting threatened to be taken to court though. Their misspelling my name is screwing up my paperwork. If they rule against me, according to the letters I've gotten, I will have to repay the worker's comp (almost $5k), reimburse the insurance company for the hospital bills (three skin grafts, three weeks in the hospital, and an ambulance ride). I've seen a couple of the bills and, yeah, it ain't pretty.

@Inaros: :( I hope everything gets resolved in your favor.

Something that comes to me. Why do you NEED cannons when you can have a shipboard Wizard or Sorcerer casting Fireball or Gust of Wind, etc.

One use of Acid Arrows on the enemy sails can ruin their day.

Arguments in favor of cannons:

-Unlike wizards and sorcerers, cannons can't be killed, turned to stone, or have their attacks counterspelled.
-Cannons can be destroyed with "Break Object" type spells and by dealing enough damage to them, but that takes the focus of an attack off the wizard preparing "Fireball" right next to the cannon. (i.e. they're a distraction)
-If the wizard or sorcerer dies, the minion can still use the cannon (at great personal risk), but not the magic scroll the wizard dropped in his death throes.

My gaming group is about to fall apart because the host is going through a mid-life crisis and divorcing his wife. He's a real good friend, but he's being a bit of a diva, and a lot of it has to do with new online relationships he's forged. I'm sure I'll be able to find/forge a new group, but since I like this one, and I've sunk a lot of time GMing the group over the past few years, I think this is sucky.

I don't know your group dynamics, but would it be possible to have someone else host? That might take the "pressure" off your current host and the group won't need to break up.

The Virginia Workers Comp Commission. It's been 8 months and they STILL can't figure out how to spell my name. Letters, calls, emails, and they INSIST I don't know how to spell my last name. I didn't realize there were that many ways to misspell my name.

Well, to be fair, Sanakht Inaros isn't one of the Top 10 Baby Names in Virginia.

I'm a programming noob. I'm making one of my first projects in Visual Basic for a class I'm taking. I just spent 3 hours looking for a Property for one of my Objects, not finding it, looking on MSDN to try to find out why I couldn't find it (o the horror!) and finally, finally finding it in my Property window, where it was all along. Somehow I was just not seeing it (and my Search function on Windows hadn't found it at all!)

*headesk*

<doubleTake>Succubus!</doubleTake>

Our contest was visited by an Ask A Scuccubus! We're moving up in the world!

"The footprint is not to exceed 10 feet by 10 feet."

I LOVE that part!

aaarg! writer's block :(

I find that flipping through a Monster Manual or Bestiary is a good way to generate ideas. Just pick a monster and imagine encountering it - Who would be likely to confront this monster? Why? (Right there you have 2 characters, and a conflict: man vs. beast) The story doesn't even need to be a direct conflict - it could be about what happens before or after the conflict takes place, too.

@Dorgar: I understand your feelings of disappointment about not being in the anthology. Having worked on several publishing projects, I want you to know that it is no slight (intentionally or otherwise) to not get a place in the published book. Lots of worthy stories did not get in, for a variety of reasons. It helps, as an author, to develop a thick skin.
I can't speak to the website's choices about how to file the past contest stories, but I can say advocating for yourself and your work is one the best things you can do, which is why a)I'm glad you've expressed your feelings here, and b)I encourage you to keep in touch with the website and join the community and express your thoughts there, too (in a respectful way, of course).

In terms of structure, there needs to be a mechanism and/or plot point that is really keyed to ships and sailing or ship-ship combat as an objective (whether in the over-arcing AP or in an adventure). Too many "pirate" adventures are landlubbery. Even the Monkey Island games and Pirates of the Caribbean movies tend to have the McGuffins land-based (except when the objective is getting/stealing a ship).
This makes sense in that most "stuff" can be found easily on land, but Paizo needs to break away from that somehow - making a McGuffin or two that is distinctly tied to ships/sailing/sea (or an undersea component, as some have suggested). That's what I think could distinguish the AP the most, and be really cool to play.

Get your girlfriend to submit a story too, Todd! That way you'll have twice as many chances of winning the prize. ;)
The stories are starting to pour in now, and I'm so pleased that I get to read all of them!

I would love to see the party becalmed in the Eye of Abendego or at least a daring ship combat in the giant hurricane.

Please avoid the merman attack attempting to sink the ship, it's been done.

Ditto! The Eye of Abendego HAS to be in this one, with some neat combat modifiers and skill checks!

I'm not averse to mermaids, per se. Just the kind I saw in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." There are plenty of other monsters to use as aquatic foes that have not had so much exposure lately. What about some old-fashioned killer sharks? We need those for walkin' the plank!

I saw a billboard for Conan in my hometown (LA). It looked like it could be the cover of one of the novels, maybe one by Boris Vallejo or some artist like him. It made me want to see the movie, and I previously wasn't that interested in it...I guess having Arnold as my governor kinda turned me off to the whole "Conan" thing. :P

I forgot to mention two other favorites of mine:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
and
The Last King of Scotland (although that is more about dictatorship and internal strife than an international war)

Your harvestman template and monster are very cool. I think I'd like to try out one of them in combat and see how the "healing" works in practice. You wrote that positive energy heals them, but how can it heal them if they are specifically only healed by taking the flesh of the dead?

A "conventional" adventure path I'd like to see would be one where the Big Bad Guy is actually a fire-breathing dragon. Even more than saving the princess, killing the dragon is the founding myth of the hobby. I've killed too few dragons in the dozen years I've been playing this game.

I request more dragons. It wouldn't be too conventional to have an AP focused mainly on dragons, would it? One dragon + princess = yawn. But one dragon + another dragon = fire-breathing realpolitik.

Thanks James, Demiurge and Jeff for your replies. I will have to seek out the Serpent Skull AP with the popobala in it. I'll be intrigued to see its stat block and descriptive text, given what I've seen written about it in the Wikipedia article.

I can't believe I spaced on Zulu and Stalag 17!!! Great call on those two.

+1