RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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3) I have a hand-drawn globe of Golarion sitting on my desk.Since my prospects of making it to your desk are slim to none, given the golems and dinosaurs (and the likely labyrinth of lethal traps just to get to the Paizo offices' front door), is there a chance we could get an awesome pic of number 3?
Whether that answer is yes or no, you have made my day Mr. Jacobs, thank you for that.
I second the motion.
Does the idea pop into your head that someone is compiling all your answers in a database to create a heuristic James Jacobs AI?
On that note, what is your favorite outdoor sport/activity?
And more fun, SCA or LARP?
What do you think of the Dragonmech setting?
Creative Director
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P. 198
…where the cult of the demon lord Deskari, Lord of the Locust Host and usher of the Apocalypse, had long tormented the people of Sarkoris…Are there multiple concepts of ‘the Apocalypse’ extant in Golarion thinking? The main one of which I was aware is the daemonic one which comes complete with horsemen, but I have difficulty imagining the daemons (especially in the context of their past history with demonkind recently outlined in Lords of Chaos) wanting a demon lord crashing 'their' party, even in the capacity of ostensibly only an usher. It starts with 'just one' demon but then suddenly they're all over the place, and it takes you millennia to clean house. :D
Yes. In Golarion, "apocalypse" is just a synonym for "end of the world."
The Horsemen don't really mind much that Deskari is known as the usher of the Apocalypse, any more than they mind that some of the ranchers in northern Nidal or the barbarians in the Nolands are often called horsemen.
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Creative Director
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What horror films would you recommend for someone who loves the genre but doesn't scare easily?
To put my tastes in perspective: I consider Ringu/The Ring the scariest movie I've ever seen, at least for the first viewing when you aren't expecting some of the twists. But I laughed all the way through Paranormal Activity (although Death of a Ghost Hunter was pretty creepy, I thought).
The Ring is a good choice for scary movie\0x1F, since it manages to be truly harrowing and scary while only having a PG-13 rating, which is a FANTASTIC accomplishment. It's also, unfortunately, why there are so many anemic horror movies these days that do themselves more harm than good by trying to wedge themselves into a PG-13 rating when often an R rating is more appropriate.
The weird thing about horror movies is that not everyone is equally frightened by them all. And others, while once scary, have lost a lot of their fear factor due to time and familiarity (the shower scene in Psycho or the chestburster from Alien or pretty much ALL of Hellraiser are great examples of that.) I found Paranormal Activity (and its sequel) to be INCREDIBLY frightening. Maybe because I saw the movie when it first started its ramp up before anyone knew what it was (I saw it for free at a special midnight showing designed entirely to let people see the movie and then let their word of mouth work as advertising several weeks before its mass release.).
Here's a list of movies that actually and honestly unsettled or even frightened me. Some (like Alien and The Thing) have been in my mind for decades. Others (like Seven Days to Live or Lake Mungo) are movies I've only recently seen, and the memories of their horror remains fresh in my head. And not all of them are equally scary\0x2014The Descent has some spooky parts, but it can't hold a candle to Audition or Martyrs or Frontier(s).
Warning: some of these are INCREDIBLY brutal and/or violent. Many of these movies leave marks. (I've asterisked those for folks who aren't into the extreme gore and are only looking for scares.)
Audition*
Human Centipede*
Martyrs*
Frontier(s)*
The Ring
Paranormal Activity
The Descent* (ONLY the British version; the American version's ending ruins the movie)
Seven Days to Live*
Alien*
The Thing*
The Blair Witch Project
The Exorcist
28 Days Later*
The Vanishing (the original, NOT the remake)
Se7en
Psycho
Halloween
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (despite its reputation, the original is actually not super gory... just super intense)
Jaws
Lake Mungo
The House of the Devil
Session 9
Night of the Living Dead
Frailty
The Devil's Backbone
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Fly (Cronenberg)*
Fire in the Sky
Hellraiser*
Nightmare on Elm Street (original)
Wolf Creek*
Open Water
Pan's Labyrinth
The Eye (the original, not the remake)
Let the Right One In (in this case, either the original OR the remake)
Of the above list, I think I'd probably put Martyrs at the top of the list as for what disturbed/scared me the most. It's one of those that, the more you think about what happened at the end, the more frightening it gets. (And again... this one is VERY violent... so if you see it, don't say I didn't warn you!)
Wow. Of those 35, I found 18 I had not seen, many of which I know are available via Netflix - I actually started watching both Session 9 and Seven Days to Live a month or so ago and have yet to finish them. I'll give those another shot, and check out your other recommendations as well. Many thanks!
EDIT: Make that 15. I've seen the Hong Kong version of The Eye but not the US remake. I had also forgotten about The Vanishing until I read the description on Netflix - that one is TERRIFYING. House of the Devil gets big ups for being a modern day film shot in the style of a gritty 1970s slasher film, and also for starring Mary Woronov, who's just creepy all on her own. =]
I'm curious: What did you think of House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, if you ever saw them? The tone of the two films are markedly different in many ways despite being chronologically sequential, and they definitely fall into the gore-fest category. Are these genuinely scary in your book, or too reliant on gore?
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask or not but will Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic (or the campaign setting guide) have the art and opening fiction at the start of chapters like The core rulebook, Gamemastery guide and Advanced players guide have? (curious since they are some of my favorite parts of the books)
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Creative Director
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Wow. Of those 35, I found 18 I had not seen, many of which I know are available via Netflix - I actually started watching both Session 9 and Seven Days to Live a month or so ago and have yet to finish them. I'll give those another shot, and check out your other recommendations as well. Many thanks!
EDIT: Make that 15. I've seen the Hong Kong version of The Eye but not the US remake. I had also forgotten about The Vanishing until I read the description on Netflix - that one is TERRIFYING. House of the Devil gets big ups for being a modern day film shot in the style of a gritty 1970s slasher film, and also for starring Mary Woronov, who's just creepy all on her own. =]
I'm curious: What did you think of House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, if you ever saw them? The tone of the two films are markedly different in many ways despite being chronologically sequential, and they definitely fall into the gore-fest category. Are these genuinely scary in your book, or too reliant on gore?
Yeah. I really REALLY liked how "House of the Devil" was filmed so that it looks like it was actually made in the early 70s, so that you forget it's a brand new movie. So when the gore and special effects happen, they're a LOT more potent because you've been psychologically tricked into thinking that when they happen, they'll look dated. Very effective trick. "The Box" did similar things.
I thought the first third of "House of 1,000 Corpses" was pretty good, but then it collapsed under the weight of its own excess. "The Devil's Rejects" is my favorite of Rob Zombie's movies, but it's still too flawed for various reasons, in my opinion, to really work as a scary movie. I do hope Rob Zombie works out his wahoo/over-the-top urges some day, because it's obvious he's a talented director... he just needs to find the right project. In any event, neither of those movies really scared me, since the flaws those movies have kept me from getting involved in the story and in the characters—it's when you're involved in the story and you actually start caring for the characters that horror kicks in. Rob Zombie's characters are generally not realistic or likable enough to care about.
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Creative Director
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask or not but will Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic (or the campaign setting guide) have the art and opening fiction at the start of chapters like The core rulebook, Gamemastery guide and Advanced players guide have? (curious since they are some of my favorite parts of the books)
yes. The chapter openers we started doing for the Core Rulebook (a big picture with a short bit of fiction to justify the picture's use as a chapter opener for that chapter) is the standard for all our hardcovers, be they in the Rulebook line or elsewhere.
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Creative Director
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Oh mighty Jacobs, I love Bardic Lore as a GM and love to use it to advance and add story elements to the game by providing actual lore (in the Saga of Meepo, penned by...). However, recently I have been unable to come up with such impromptu lore. Any advice is much appreciated.
Ultimate Magic will help. It has special types of bardic performances that bards can use. The original idea was something we were code-naming "masterwork performances."
A ranger, a bard and a monk all walk into a 10' by 10' room. Who kills the orc and eats the pie?
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Ultimate Magic will help. It has special types of bardic performances that bards can use. The original idea was something we were code-naming "masterwork performances."
I hope these are like ensembles, orchestras, or bands. That way I can have a group that is actually a barbershop quartet or jug band.
A ranger, a bard and a monk all walk into a 10' by 10' room. Who kills the orc and eats the pie?
No one, because the GM never described a pie or orc in the 10' by 10' room. Obviously the tale was concocted by the bard out of boredom due to the plain, barren room and because the ranger hates orcs and the monk likes pie. Notice the pie is untyped and thus the bonus granted by it stacks with other pies.
On the matter of pies, James what is your favorite? Mine is French meat or pumpkin...
Favorite soda?
J.J., if you could be, and I do mean be, any of the Iconics, who would it be, and why?
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Creative Director
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On the matter of pies, James what is your favorite? Mine is French meat or pumpkin...
Favorite soda?
Favorite pie = tie between raspberry, coconut creme, and pumpkin.
Favorite soda is diet wild cherry pepsi. I'm gonna be going to buy some of it within the next ten minutes, in fact, to fuel what I hope will be a productive day of writing.
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Creative Director
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If the classic adventuring party is: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric
And the wilderness party is: Barbarian, Ranger, Sorcerer, Druid.
What does that make a party consisting of a Cavalier, Alchemist, Witch and Oracle?
Easy prey for traps, probably. Unless the Alchemist picks up the slack.
Oh, also, since this group doesn't have a wizard, the "OMG NO GROUP CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT A WIZARD OMG" groups will freak out. I happen to disagree with that outlook, of course.
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Creative Director
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J.J., if you could be, and I do mean be, any of the Iconics, who would it be, and why?
Merisiel! She's the coolest!
Lem or Kyra'd be cool too, though.
AKA: My three favorite classes = bard, rogue, and cleric. I used to quite like druids, but for whatever reason, I've shifted away from them and they're my 4th favorite now.
Although if dinosaurs are "available," druid skyrockets in awesomeness. But Lini doesn't have a dinosaur companion, so she's off the list.
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If the classic adventuring party is: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric
And the wilderness party is: Barbarian, Ranger, Sorcerer, Druid.
What does that make a party consisting of a Cavalier, Alchemist, Witch and Oracle?
Easy prey for traps, probably. Unless the Alchemist picks up the slack.
Oh, also, since this group doesn't have a wizard, the "OMG NO GROUP CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT A WIZARD OMG" groups will freak out. I happen to disagree with that outlook, of course.
Generally that crowd say you can't survive without a caster with the versatility and adaptability of the wizard, which the witch and (to a lesser extent) the sorcerer have.
If the classic adventuring party is: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric
And the wilderness party is: Barbarian, Ranger, Sorcerer, Druid.
What does that make a party consisting of a Cavalier, Alchemist, Witch and Oracle?
Easy prey for traps, probably. Unless the Alchemist picks up the slack.
Oh, also, since this group doesn't have a wizard, the "OMG NO GROUP CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT A WIZARD OMG" groups will freak out. I happen to disagree with that outlook, of course.
ON that note, what is a party of 13 level 0 Dwarves, a hobbit and an ArchWizard who only plays every third gaming session?
Do you have DR / iridium?
Why do you think I asked you that question?
1. What would happen if Charlie Sheen went to Libya?
2. What is the one question you most wish I'd ask you?
What is Charlie Sheen's CR?
If the classic adventuring party is: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric
And the wilderness party is: Barbarian, Ranger, Sorcerer, Druid.
What does that make a party consisting of a Cavalier, Alchemist, Witch and Oracle?
Postmodern Antihero Awesome Party?
/JJ Mask
ARRGH!!! PREmodern!
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Creative Director
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ON that note, what is a party of 13 level 0 Dwarves, a hobbit and an ArchWizard who only plays every third gaming session?
Since there's no such thing as a "level 0" creature in Pathfinder, that party would be a RULE BREAKER!!!! CALL THE RULES POLICE!!!
OH! ALSO THE LITIGATION POLICE! UNLAWFUL USE OF THE WORD "HOBBIT!"
ZOMG!
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Director of Narrative
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Since 1% - 2% of people on Earth have red hair (increasing to 3% – 6% in northern and western Europe – even higher in Scotland and Ireland), where in Golarion is red hair most common? I did a search of the CS but the only mention of red hair was in the Cheliax entry linking the pigmentation to lower-plane influence.
Since my prospects of making it to your desk are slim to none, given the golems and dinosaurs (and the likely labyrinth of lethal traps just to get to the Paizo offices' front door), is there a chance we could get an awesome pic of number 3?
Whether that answer is yes or no, you have made my day Mr. Jacobs, thank you for that.
A picture of my Golarion globe would indeed make a pretty cool Golarion Day blog post.
That said, I also don't want it being out there in the public any time soon since I'm not 100% sure I'm happy with it. We made the world map in the Inner Sea World Guide deliberately vague so that we could get the basic shapes and positions of the continents out there for folks to see, but not to actually start measuring distances.
It's still gotta cook for a while in the oven, in other words, before it's ready for the party.
Myself, and several others will anxiously await this. Thanks!
I know the logistics of globe-making would put it out of the realm of affordable if made for production, but I'd LOVE to have a globe of Golarion, personally. Maybe (once you're happy with yours, of course) one could get released by you fine folks and we could make one via a .pdf we print out and assemble?
That would be some serious awesome to put on my desk in my office (at home or at work!).
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Creative Director
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Since 1% - 2% of people on Earth have red hair (increasing to 3% – 6% in northern and western Europe – even higher in Scotland and Ireland), where in Golarion is red hair most common? I did a search of the CS but the only mention of red hair was in the Cheliax entry linking the pigmentation to lower-plane influence.
It's probably most common in adventures I write, if Sutter's Theory holds water.
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How fun was last weekend? and why was it so distraction filled?
Reading through the monsters in the Great Beyond, which are pre-PF I have a question: when a converting a NPC/PC/Monster to PF, what do you do when the skills that have been combined aren't the same? obviously it's not that huge a deal, and as GM i'd do it however i please, but what do u suggest? going with the lower number, the higher or a middle ground?
The Astradaemon in there deals Energy Drain with it's three physical attacks, but nothing is listed to explain how much, or exactly what Energy Drain does, in this instance.
All the monsters in Great Beyond were updated to Pathfinder RPG mechanics in Bestiary 2. (It inflicts 1 negative level with each hit, Fort DC 25, by the way.)
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So it takes forever for the mail to reach me with my subscription every month, mainly because I live on a god forsaken rock in the north atlantic. So as a result I read through my subscription material pretty quickly and then have to wait weeks for new stuff to arrive. Any suggestion on how to deal with my pathfinder withdrawal in the interim?
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Creative Director
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So it takes forever for the mail to reach me with my subscription every month, mainly because I live on a god forsaken rock in the north atlantic. So as a result I read through my subscription material pretty quickly and then have to wait weeks for new stuff to arrive. Any suggestion on how to deal with my pathfinder withdrawal in the interim?
Hmmmm... start writing adventures for Golarion and then pitching them to the Pathfinder Society?
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So it takes forever for the mail to reach me with my subscription every month, mainly because I live on a god forsaken rock in the north atlantic. So as a result I read through my subscription material pretty quickly and then have to wait weeks for new stuff to arrive. Any suggestion on how to deal with my pathfinder withdrawal in the interim?Hmmmm... start writing adventures for Golarion and then pitching them to the Pathfinder Society?
I already have one but I think it's a bit too mature. Nidalese prison with kyton torturer jailors run by a heavily "modified" vampire cleric of zon-kuthon prison warden. Don't you think that sounds to mature?
Are you going to buy one of Gary Gygax's cigar boxes off of eBay?
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Any chance we see any Golarion dungeons using non-Euclidean geometry, like my tesseract template that I made in a fit of boredom today?
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For Pathfinder Society play, perhaps—depends on how it's handled, really. Doesn't mean you can't do another one!I already have one but I think it's a bit too mature. Nidalese prison with kyton torturer jailors run by a heavily "modified" vampire cleric of zon-kuthon prison warden. Don't you think that sounds to mature?So it takes forever for the mail to reach me with my subscription every month, mainly because I live on a god forsaken rock in the north atlantic. So as a result I read through my subscription material pretty quickly and then have to wait weeks for new stuff to arrive. Any suggestion on how to deal with my pathfinder withdrawal in the interim?Hmmmm... start writing adventures for Golarion and then pitching them to the Pathfinder Society?
Does it at least sound like a cool scenario?
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Creative Director
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Any chance we see any Golarion dungeons using non-Euclidean geometry, like my tesseract template that I made in a fit of boredom today?
Yes.
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Creative Director
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I already have one but I think it's a bit too mature. Nidalese prison with kyton torturer jailors run by a heavily "modified" vampire cleric of zon-kuthon prison warden. Don't you think that sounds to mature?
Does it at least sound like a cool scenario?
Possibly... although it's hard for me to say since what you've mentioned is just a location and some monsters—no idea what kind of actual scenario takes place there. So I can't really say.
Are you going to buy one of Gary Gygax's cigar boxes off of eBay?Nope.
Not even if it had a fossilized deinonychus claw in it?